Managing Partner, VRS (Valuation & Research Specialists)

VRS (Valuation & Research Specialists)

Managing Partner

Valuation & Research Specialists (VRS) is a boutique financial advisor with more than 17 years of experience in Corporate Valuation and Finance, and a diversified client base including some of the largest Companies in Greece.

Since 2002, VRS has completed more than 200 engagements in the areas of business valuation and financial analysis for more than 100 clients in a wide range of industries.

VRS has been honored to work with small and large private and publicly traded companies in Europe and overseas.

Boutique Financial Advisor

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul><li>Our estimations for 2023 annual revenue range around $6,805 million and for 2024 around $7,354 million.</li><li>The company’s annual revenue reached $9,701 million in 2022, compared to $10,518 million in 2021, posting a de- crease of 7.77%.</li><li>West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd.'s gross profit for 2022 was $4,559 million, a decrease of 22% compared to $5,873 million for the corresponding period in 2021.</li></ul>

Our estimations for 2023 annual revenue range around $6,805 million and for 2024 around $7,354 million.The company’s annual revenue reached $9,701 million in 2022, compared to $10,518 million in 2021, posting a de- crease of 7.77%.West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd.'s gross profit for 2022 was $4,559 million, a decrease of 22% compared to $5,873 million for the corresponding period in 2021.

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.

<ul>
<li>West Fraser produces lumber for the construction industry and also manufactures wood-based products such as engineered wood, panel products, and pulp and paper products.</li>
<li>In the fourth quarter of 2023, the company posted mixed results across its business segments.</li>
<li>Its North American engineered wood business segment displayed strength while soft demand affected its North American lumber products.</li>
</ul>


West Fraser produces lumber for the construction industry and also manufactures wood-based products such as engineered wood, panel products, and pulp and paper products.
In the fourth quarter of 2023, the company posted mixed results across its business segments.
Its North American engineered wood business segment displayed strength while soft demand affected its North American lumber products.


West Fraser Timber: Initiation Of Coverage - Stability in Remodel and Repair Activity!

Managing Director

Elan Gore

TMI Data Science

TMI Data Science utilizes Natural Language Processing to build custom leading indicators using unstructured data sourced from the global financial, trade & traditional media.  Our proprietary software, TMI Machine, is a text-mining platform designed with the buy-side & capital markets professional in mind, text-mining the global media to discern and quantify nuanced qualitative shifts in press coverage as they apply to macroeconomics, equity indexes/ETFs, commodities, currencies, fixed income & individual equities.  TMI provides custom leading indicators and systematic trading strategies, operating at the nexus of linguistics & statistics drawing on vast experience in investment banking and hedge fund settings in senior quantitative and fundamental roles.  

TMI Data Science was founded by Elan Gore, an award-winning Senior Global Basic Materials Equity Analyst & China Economist with 15 years of experience in North American hedge funds & institutional managers; and Alessandro Porrino, Ph.D., an Algorithmic Trading Analyst and Programmer with 10 years of front-office experience ranging from complex FX option pricing to auto-hedging strategies at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Standard Chartered.  Mr. Gore holds an MBA in Finance from New York University Stern School of Business, and Mr. Porrino holds a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from Brunel University London.

Cross Asset Strategy

<ul>
<li>The strength of US housing has been an unassailable consensus theme coming out of the March-April shock, aided by record-low rates and signs of deurbanization</li>
<li>We text-mine across a range of housing vectors to find greater nuance to the story than headlines imply</li>
<li>Extreme sentiment readings are seen in recent reporting on housing data releases (i.e. existing home sales, housing starts, NAHB); but our text-mined indicators of homebuyer intentions, deurbanization pressure and sales reported above asking price have turned softer</li>
<li>This is partially confirmed by Zillow app store data, which peaked on a Y/Y basis in July and on an absolute basis in August, recently turning roughly flat Y/Y; and by Redfin median square footage comps, which peaked in August</li>
<li>Similarly, our indicator of wood product shortages peaked in September and has stabilized since, in-line with forest products ETF relative performance and wood product pricing</li>
<li>We suspect US housing demand has been losing momentum, but remains at elevated absolute levels</li>
</ul><div class="content-highlight"><p>TMI Data Science utilizes Natural Language Processing to build custom leading indicators using unstructured data sourced from the global financial, trade &amp; traditional media. Our proprietary software text-mines the global media to discern and quantify nuanced qualitative shifts in press coverage as they apply to macroeconomics, equity indexes/ETFs, commodities, currencies, fixed income &amp; individual equities. </p></div>


The strength of US housing has been an unassailable consensus theme coming out of the March-April shock, aided by record-low rates and signs of deurbanization
We text-mine across a range of housing vectors to find greater nuance to the story than headlines imply
Extreme sentiment readings are seen in recent reporting on housing data releases (i.e. existing home sales, housing starts, NAHB); but our text-mined indicators of homebuyer intentions, deurbanization pressure and sales reported above asking price have turned softer
This is partially confirmed by Zillow app store data, which peaked on a Y/Y basis in July and on an absolute basis in August, recently turning roughly flat Y/Y; and by Redfin median square footage comps, which peaked in August
Similarly, our indicator of wood product shortages peaked in September and has stabilized since, in-line with forest products ETF relative performance and wood product pricing
We suspect US housing demand has been losing momentum, but remains at elevated absolute levels
TMI Data Science utilizes Natural Language Processing to build custom leading indicators using unstructured data sourced from the global financial, trade &amp; traditional media. Our proprietary software text-mines the global media to discern and quantify nuanced qualitative shifts in press coverage as they apply to macroeconomics, equity indexes/ETFs, commodities, currencies, fixed income &amp; individual equities. 

TMI Snapshot: Some US Housing Indicators Lose Momentum as Deurbanization Theme Appears Transitory

Technical Analyst, Vermilion Research

Joe Jasper

Technical Analyst

Technical and Quantitative Research

Vermilion Research

Vermilion’s objective is to deliver timely, actionable, and unique technical research to professional investors through the application of our various technical indicators.

Our research strategists seek to highlight securities which we believe are at major inflection points, based on our various technical and quantitative indicators, and offer asymmetric risk/return profiles. Our unique research methodology, centered on relative strength, enables our strategists to deliver superior investment recommendations.

Our process begins by organizing the universe of actively traded stocks into discrete sectors, then into industry groups. We then apply our technical and quantitative tools to identify developing price trends. Once attractive trends are identified within a selected sector or group, we screen for individual stocks which we believe offer the best risk/reward profile. We provide a historical perspective that often reveals, through our long-term charts, how price patterns often repeat themselves over time.

Technical Analysis

<p>Price and relative strength trends continue to improve for our international equal-weight Health Care Sector.<br>We recommend adding exposure, and provide charts on numerous actionable stocks across global markets. We also highlight actionable stocks within Materials, beyond metals &amp; mining stocks, that are outperforming. </p>

Price and relative strength trends continue to improve for our international equal-weight Health Care Sector. We recommend adding exposure, and provide charts on numerous actionable stocks across global markets. We also highlight actionable stocks within Materials, beyond metals &amp; mining stocks, that are outperforming. 

Global Strategy: Opportunities in Health Care & Materials Stocks

Canada

West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. produces dimension lumber and related wood products, fiberboard, pulp, linerboard, kraft paper, and newsprint.  The Company has operations in British Columbia, Alberta and in the southern United States.

West Fraser Timber (WFT CN)

FLASH NOTE - West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd.

West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd.'s gross profit for 2022 was $4,559 million, a decrease of 22% compared to $5,873 million for the corresponding period...

VRS (Valuation & Research Specialists)

West Fraser Timber: Initiation Of Coverage - Stability in Remodel and Repair Activity!

West Fraser produces lumber for the construction industry and also manufactures wood-based products such as engineered wood, panel products, and...

Baptista Research

TMI Snapshot: Some US Housing Indicators Lose Momentum as Deurbanization Theme Appears Transitory

We see potentially peaking momentum in US housing, as data suggests the pandemic-driven deurbanization theme seen as a multi-year secular catalyst...

Elan Gore

Global Strategy: Opportunities in Health Care & Materials Stocks

Price and relative strength trends continue to improve for our international equal-weight Health Care Sector.We recommend adding exposure, and...

Vermilion Research