Independent research on the U.S. markets, Baptista Research

Baptista Research

Independent research on the U.S. markets

Baptista Research is an independent financial research house focused on the U.S. markets. We provide equity research as well as credit research reports on the top-listed U.S. companies with most of our focus on technology, consumer goods and services, automobiles, industrials, oil and gas, pharma, and healthcare. Our research has served more than 3000 institutional investors including mutual funds, hedge funds, banks, family offices, and various buy-side firms. We operate a research subscription service where institutions, as well as retail investors, can have priority access to all our research. We also have a wide distribution of our research reports across some of the top global financial platforms. Apart from equity research and credit research, we also provide advisory services with respect to mergers & acquisitions (M&A), private equity/ venture capital fundraising, valuation reports, and investment management services for corporates.
Baptista Research is owned and managed by Ishan Majumdar, an ex-Venture Capitalist/ Investment Banker, a Chartered Accountant, and a Masters’ degree holder in Management from HEC Paris. Ishan has nearly a decade of experience in Mergers and Acquisitions, Leveraged Buyouts (LBOs), Venture Capital Investing, Corporate Strategy, and Valuation in front-office roles at the likes of BNP Paribas CIB, Credit Agricole CIB, Groupe Danone, and TIW Private Equity. He has worked on and closed multiple acquisition deals, leveraged buyouts, and start-up investment transactions.

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul><li>Spotify reported its first-quarter 2025 results with decent metrics, yet the numbers failed to satisfy market expectations, leading to a sharp drop in its stock price.</li><li>Despite posting a 12% year-over-year increase in premium subscribers to 268 million—exceeding analyst estimates of 265 million—Spotify shares fell 8.7% in early trading to $545.77.</li><li>The company also registered 678 million monthly active users, up 10%, broadly meeting expectations.</li></ul>

Spotify reported its first-quarter 2025 results with decent metrics, yet the numbers failed to satisfy market expectations, leading to a sharp drop in its stock price.Despite posting a 12% year-over-year increase in premium subscribers to 268 million—exceeding analyst estimates of 265 million—Spotify shares fell 8.7% in early trading to $545.77.The company also registered 678 million monthly active users, up 10%, broadly meeting expectations.

Spotify Bets Big on Audiobooks—Is This the Platform's Most Disruptive Move Yet?

Asset Allocation & Fund Positioning, Copley Fund Research

Steven Holden

Asset Allocation & Fund Positioning

Copley Fund Research

Copley Fund Research provide research and data on asset allocation among Global and Emerging Market equity funds.  The analysis details absolute and relative positioning across countries, sectors and industries together with highly granular data on single stock and single fund allocations.  The data is updated monthly with time series going back to January 2011.

Global Research - Analysis of 165 prominent Global equity funds, combined AUM $335bn
GEM Research - Analysis of 127 prominent global EM equity funds, combined AUM $250bn

Asset Allocation - Global and GEM Equity

Cross Asset Strategy

<ul>
<li>Regional rotation places DM Europe as clear consensus overweight among active Global equity funds.</li>
<li>Seventy-Five percent of funds are overweight UK stocks, with 69.6% overweight France and 70.2% overweight the Netherlands</li>
<li>Novo Nordisk, ASML, Schneider Electric, and AstraZeneca remain key holdings, while a resurgence from European banks and select names like Spotify and LSEG is also starting to stand out.</li>
</ul>


Regional rotation places DM Europe as clear consensus overweight among active Global equity funds.
Seventy-Five percent of funds are overweight UK stocks, with 69.6% overweight France and 70.2% overweight the Netherlands
Novo Nordisk, ASML, Schneider Electric, and AstraZeneca remain key holdings, while a resurgence from European banks and select names like Spotify and LSEG is also starting to stand out.


Europe Reasserted: Consensus Builds as Europe Reclaims Ground from the U.S.

<ul><li>Spotify Technology S.A., a leading global audio streaming service, reported a strong conclusion to its fiscal year 2024, highlighted by record metrics across multiple fronts.</li><li>The company achieved its highest-ever fourth-quarter addition of Monthly Active Users (MAUs) and a substantial increase in premium subscribers, reflecting positively on its growth strategies and customer engagement efforts.</li><li>Positives from the performance include the notable growth in Spotify’s MAUs, adding 35 million users to reach 675 million, alongside 11 million new subscribers bringing the total to 263 million.</li></ul>

Spotify Technology S.A., a leading global audio streaming service, reported a strong conclusion to its fiscal year 2024, highlighted by record metrics across multiple fronts.The company achieved its highest-ever fourth-quarter addition of Monthly Active Users (MAUs) and a substantial increase in premium subscribers, reflecting positively on its growth strategies and customer engagement efforts.Positives from the performance include the notable growth in Spotify’s MAUs, adding 35 million users to reach 675 million, alongside 11 million new subscribers bringing the total to 263 million.

Spotify’s First Truly Profitable Year Was Great! But Will It Be EVEN MORE Profitable With The Expansion of Subscription Tiers & Monetization Of Video Content?

Head of Research, IPOs & Placements, Aequitas Research

Sumeet Singh

Head of Research, IPOs & Placements

IPOs and Placements coverage across Asia Pacific

Aequitas Research

We cover all listing across the Asia Pacific along with follow-up placements. As of Dec 2020, our team had covered 539 IPOs with a hit rate of 73.5% and 685 placements with a hit rate of 66.8%.

We combine fundamental bottom-up views with our proprietary quantitative framework to provide a holistic coverage across new listings and placements. Our coverage includes pre-IPO notes before the deal is launched, follow-up analysis once the deal is live and post-listing trading analysis as well.

Event-Driven

<ul>
<li>Multiple new agencies have been reporting that <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/tencent-holdings-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:26:1" rel="noopener">Tencent (700 HK)</a> plans to trim its investment portfolio over the remainder of the year. </li>
<li>The reports have been coming in since the second half of the year and the company has been duly denying these rumors.</li>
<li>In this note, we look at Tencent’s shareholding in various companies to try and gauge which ones it could sell out of and how.</li>
</ul>


Multiple new agencies have been reporting that Tencent (700 HK) plans to trim its investment portfolio over the remainder of the year. 
The reports have been coming in since the second half of the year and the company has been duly denying these rumors.
In this note, we look at Tencent’s shareholding in various companies to try and gauge which ones it could sell out of and how.


Tencent Investee Selldown - The US$120bn Global Overhang

TMT & Consumer Independent Equity Research Analyst, Obex Capital Research

Aaron Gabin

TMT & Consumer Independent Equity Research Analyst

TMT & Consumer Independent Equity Research

Obex Capital Research

“Obex” is Latin for Barriers to Entry. Obex Capital Management’s investment philosophy is driven by an intense focus on which business model’s Barriers to Entry are able to withstand the ever increasing competitive disruption in the TMT and Consumer Sectors.

<ul>
<li>TikTok's business model advantage: short form video creates greater signal for algorithmic addiction is forcing rivals to react (where possible).</li>
<li>META is best positioned to copy TikTok, and is trading at a valuation approximating cable networks during cord cutting.</li>
<li>Netflix is worst positioned... as YouTube, Instagram, and Snap incorporate TikTok's short form video, more attention will be drawn away from the streaming services. Tough spot to be in.</li>
</ul>


TikTok's business model advantage: short form video creates greater signal for algorithmic addiction is forcing rivals to react (where possible).
META is best positioned to copy TikTok, and is trading at a valuation approximating cable networks during cord cutting.
Netflix is worst positioned... as YouTube, Instagram, and Snap incorporate TikTok's short form video, more attention will be drawn away from the streaming services. Tough spot to be in.


Luxembourg

Spotify Technology S.A. provides music streaming services. The Company offers commercial free music and ad-supported services to subscribers. Spotify Technology serves clients worldwide.

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Spotify (SPOT US)

Spotify Bets Big on Audiobooks—Is This the Platform's Most Disruptive Move Yet?

Spotify reported its first-quarter 2025 results with decent metrics, yet the numbers failed to satisfy market expectations, leading to a sharp...

Baptista Research

Europe Reasserted: Consensus Builds as Europe Reclaims Ground from the U.S.

Regional rotation places Developed Europe as a clear consensus overweight among active Global equity funds, with over 90% of funds positioned ahead...

Steven Holden

Spotify’s First Truly Profitable Year Was Great! But Will It Be EVEN MORE Profitable With The Expansion of Subscription Tiers & Monetization Of Video Content?

Spotify Technology S.A., a leading global audio streaming service, reported a strong conclusion to its fiscal year 2024, highlighted by record...

Baptista Research

Tencent Investee Selldown - The US$120bn Global Overhang

There have been multiple reports that Tencent (700 HK) plans to trim its investment portfolio over the remainder of the year. We look at Tencent's...

Sumeet Singh

TMT Pre-2Q Earnings: The TikTok Impact

TikTok is wreaking havoc on the advertising and streaming ecosystems by stealing attention. META is best positioned to respond, NFLX is least well...

Aaron Gabin

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