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>Williams-Sonoma, Inc. delivered a robust third quarter of fiscal 2025, marked by top-line growth and resilient profitability, despite challenges.</li><li>Comparable brand revenue saw a 4% uptick, surpassing expectations, driven by a broad base of positive comps across all brands.</li><li>This quarter's strength was significantly bolstered by an outstanding retail performance, which grew by 8.5% in comparable sales, illustrating effective in-store enhancements and inventory availability.</li></ul>

Williams-Sonoma, Inc. delivered a robust third quarter of fiscal 2025, marked by top-line growth and resilient profitability, despite challenges.Comparable brand revenue saw a 4% uptick, surpassing expectations, driven by a broad base of positive comps across all brands.This quarter's strength was significantly bolstered by an outstanding retail performance, which grew by 8.5% in comparable sales, illustrating effective in-store enhancements and inventory availability.

Williams-Sonoma’s Logistics Upgrade Is a Game-Changer—Will New Distribution Centers Unlock a Holiday Advantage?

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

<ul>
<li>We remain near-term bullish since our 4/22/25 Compass, and our intermediate-term outlook remains bullish as well (as of our 5/14/25 Compass). We will maintain our bullish outlook as long as...</li>
<li>...market dynamics remain healthy and the SPX is above 6028-6059. Short-term supports on SPX include 6400-6410, the 3-month uptrend (currently at ~6380), 6200, 6100-6150, and 6028-6059</li>
<li>Bullish Developments Continue: DJI and Russell 2000 Breakouts and Much More</li>
</ul>


We remain near-term bullish since our 4/22/25 Compass, and our intermediate-term outlook remains bullish as well (as of our 5/14/25 Compass). We will maintain our bullish outlook as long as...
...market dynamics remain healthy and the SPX is above 6028-6059. Short-term supports on SPX include 6400-6410, the 3-month uptrend (currently at ~6380), 6200, 6100-6150, and 6028-6059
Bullish Developments Continue: DJI and Russell 2000 Breakouts and Much More


DJI and Russell 2000 Breaking Out; Staying Bullish; Bullish Developments Continue

Quality-first, Business-perspective, Long-term, Urbem (HK) Limited

Urbem Capital

Quality-first, Business-perspective, Long-term

Quality-first, Business-perspective Strategy

Urbem (HK) Limited

<ul>
<li>Our 2023 thesis correctly identified RH as a highly differentiated luxury brand, but we overestimated how reliably that differentiation would translate into durable compounding.</li>
<li>We underweighted industry crowding and low purchase frequency, but most importantly the reinforcing effect of cyclicality, fixed costs, and financial leverage.</li>
<li>The lesson is to test repeatability, customer alternatives, downside economics, and balance-sheet resilience before translating uniqueness and TAM into a moat.</li>
</ul>


Our 2023 thesis correctly identified RH as a highly differentiated luxury brand, but we overestimated how reliably that differentiation would translate into durable compounding.
We underweighted industry crowding and low purchase frequency, but most importantly the reinforcing effect of cyclicality, fixed costs, and financial leverage.
The lesson is to test repeatability, customer alternatives, downside economics, and balance-sheet resilience before translating uniqueness and TAM into a moat.


RH: A One-Of-A-Kind Business, but Not a One-Of-A-Kind Investment

Research from Water Tower Research, Water Tower Research

Water Tower Research

Research from Water Tower Research

Water Tower Research is a leading equity research firm that provides research on micro, small and mid cap companies.

Water Tower Research was founded by Wall Street veterans after witnessing a fundamental shift in the investment research industry with the result being a declining knowledge base among investors, a lack of awareness and a shrinking pool of fundamental research being conducted on companies across the small-cap and micro-cap spectrum. The same issues are now increasingly occurring in the mid-cap space. This sea change within the investment community is impacting not only the companies themselves but also current shareholders and potential investors. With significantly less active sell-side sponsorship by Wall Street, a substantial information gap has developed between companies and various constituents in the financial community. The net result is fewer channels for insight and information to flow between companies and investors.

Equity Research Firm

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<div><div><div><div><ul style="list-style-type: disc;"><li><p>Monthly report on restaurant and retail companies. At Water Tower Research, we are introducing a new monthly report to focus exclusively on the Restaurant and Retail Industries.</p></li><li><p>Our report will focus on stock performance, short interest, an outlook for restaurant commodity costs, interesting themes, and company interviews.</p></li><li><p>In this note, we interviewed Gary Schnierow, Vice-President of Investor Relations, and Corporate Finance for Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc. (NASDAQ: BBW). </p></li></ul></div></div></div></div>

Monthly report on restaurant and retail companies. At Water Tower Research, we are introducing a new monthly report to focus exclusively on the Restaurant and Retail Industries.Our report will focus on stock performance, short interest, an outlook for restaurant commodity costs, interesting themes, and company interviews.In this note, we interviewed Gary Schnierow, Vice-President of Investor Relations, and Corporate Finance for Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc. (NASDAQ: BBW). 

Restaurant & Retail Roundup - Interview with Build-A-Bear Workshop (BBW)

<div>Ongoing market dynamics remain largely positive and there continues to be an absence of major breakdowns across all Sectors and the major averages. As a result, we expect higher prices ahead and recommend adding exposure on pullbacks. In today’s report we highlight attractive Groups and stocks within Consumer Discretionary and Health Care.</div>

Ongoing market dynamics remain largely positive and there continues to be an absence of major breakdowns across all Sectors and the major averages. As a result, we expect higher prices ahead and recommend adding exposure on pullbacks. In today’s report we highlight attractive Groups and stocks within Consumer Discretionary and Health Care.

S&P 500, Russell 2000 Testing Short-Term Support

United States

Williams-Sonoma, Inc. retails cooking and serving equipment, home furnishings, and home accessories through retail stores, mail order catalogs and e-commerce. The Company offers its merchandise under the Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, Pottery Barn Teen, and West Elm.

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Williams Sonoma (WSM US)

Williams-Sonoma’s Logistics Upgrade Is a Game-Changer—Will New Distribution Centers Unlock a Holiday Advantage?

Williams-Sonoma, Inc. delivered a robust third quarter of fiscal 2025, marked by top-line growth and resilient profitability, despite...

Baptista Research

DJI and Russell 2000 Breaking Out; Staying Bullish; Bullish Developments Continue

$DJI and Russell 2000 $IWM Breaking Out; Staying Bullish $SPX $QQQ; Bullish Developments Continue: DJI, IWM, $RSP Breakouts, RS on $XLP at new...

Vermilion Research

RH: A One-Of-A-Kind Business, but Not a One-Of-A-Kind Investment

Three years after calling RH a one-of-a-kind business, we revisit what worked, what we underweighted, what went wrong, and the lessons worth...

Urbem Capital

Restaurant & Retail Roundup - Interview with Build-A-Bear Workshop (BBW)

Monthly report on restaurant and retail companies. At Water Tower Research, we are introducing a new monthly report to focus exclusively on the...

Water Tower Research

S&P 500, Russell 2000 Testing Short-Term Support

Ongoing market dynamics remain largely positive across all Sectors and the major averages. As a result, we expect higher prices ahead and recommend...

Vermilion Research

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