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>Wingstop Inc posted high performance for fiscal 2024 as reflected in its latest fourth quarter and full year results.</li><li>The industry-leading results demonstrate the strength and resilience of the strategies executed by the company, delivering a record-breaking 20th consecutive year of same-store sales growth.</li><li>The strategy aims at primarily driving transactions - a key growth metric for the business.</li></ul>

Wingstop Inc posted high performance for fiscal 2024 as reflected in its latest fourth quarter and full year results.The industry-leading results demonstrate the strength and resilience of the strategies executed by the company, delivering a record-breaking 20th consecutive year of same-store sales growth.The strategy aims at primarily driving transactions - a key growth metric for the business.

Wingstop Inc.: What Is Its Core Business Strategy? - Major Drivers

<ul><li>The Wingstop Fiscal Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings highlighted the company's substantial progress with its strategies involving same-store sales growth, brand partner returns, and growth acceleration.</li><li>An eye-catching declaration from Wingstop was that 2023 was its strongest financial year on record, demonstrated simultaneously through its industry-leading results and marking its 20th consecutive year of same-store sales growth.</li><li>Furthermore, Wingstop managed to grow to over $3.5 billion in system-wide sales- a growth spurt of 27%- coupled with the opening of a record-breaking 255 net new restaurants..</li></ul>

The Wingstop Fiscal Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings highlighted the company's substantial progress with its strategies involving same-store sales growth, brand partner returns, and growth acceleration.An eye-catching declaration from Wingstop was that 2023 was its strongest financial year on record, demonstrated simultaneously through its industry-leading results and marking its 20th consecutive year of same-store sales growth.Furthermore, Wingstop managed to grow to over $3.5 billion in system-wide sales- a growth spurt of 27%- coupled with the opening of a record-breaking 255 net new restaurants..

Wingstop Inc.: Initiation Of Coverage - These Are The 6 Big Catalysts For Its Future Growth!  - Financial Forecasts

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>More restrictive Fed policy than expected is disproportionately hitting small/mid-caps which are more sensitive to higher interest rates. This suggests we could see further consolidation for small- and mid-caps.</li>
<li>Large-Caps (SPX, Nasdaq 100, DJI) remain bullish on continued strength from mega-caps (AMZN, META, NVDA,MSFT). Our bullish outlook remains appropriate, but we discuss what would lead us to get cautious.</li>
<li>1-, 2-, and 10-year Treasury yields testing resistance today and failing. U.S. dollar (DXY) also testing key resistance at $104.60. We also push back on the bad breadth argument (again).</li>
</ul>


More restrictive Fed policy than expected is disproportionately hitting small/mid-caps which are more sensitive to higher interest rates. This suggests we could see further consolidation for small- and mid-caps.
Large-Caps (SPX, Nasdaq 100, DJI) remain bullish on continued strength from mega-caps (AMZN, META, NVDA,MSFT). Our bullish outlook remains appropriate, but we discuss what would lead us to get cautious.
1-, 2-, and 10-year Treasury yields testing resistance today and failing. U.S. dollar (DXY) also testing key resistance at $104.60. We also push back on the bad breadth argument (again).


Monitoring Rising Treasury Yields & U.S. Dollar (DXY); What Would Lead Us to Get Cautious?

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)

<ul>
<li>Our monthly WTR restaurant and retail report focuses on stock performance, short interest, an outlook for restaurant commodity costs, our casual dining same-store sales (SSS) and traffic survey, and takeaways from the Restaurant Finance &amp; Development Conference (RFDC) that occurred in mid-November.</li>
<li>Retailers outperform and restaurants underperform indexes on a MTD basis. For November 2023, the performance reversed, with retailers outperforming the restaurants by a wide margin.</li>
<li>On a month-to-date (MTD) basis, our equal-weighted index of restaurant stocks increased 6.2% following a decline of 4.2% in October, but below the S&amp;P 500, which increased 8.6%. </li>
</ul>


Our monthly WTR restaurant and retail report focuses on stock performance, short interest, an outlook for restaurant commodity costs, our casual dining same-store sales (SSS) and traffic survey, and takeaways from the Restaurant Finance &amp; Development Conference (RFDC) that occurred in mid-November.
Retailers outperform and restaurants underperform indexes on a MTD basis. For November 2023, the performance reversed, with retailers outperforming the restaurants by a wide margin.
On a month-to-date (MTD) basis, our equal-weighted index of restaurant stocks increased 6.2% following a decline of 4.2% in October, but below the S&amp;P 500, which increased 8.6%. 


Restaurant & Retail Roundup - Takeaways from RFDC

<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)

United States

Wingstop Inc. owns and operates restaurants. The Company specializes in cooked-to-order, hand-sauced, and tossed chicken wings. Wingstop serves customers worldwide.

Wingstop Inc (WING US)

Wingstop Inc.: What Is Its Core Business Strategy? - Major Drivers

Wingstop Inc posted high performance for fiscal 2024 as reflected in its latest fourth quarter and full year results. The industry-leading results...

Baptista Research

Wingstop Inc.: Initiation Of Coverage - These Are The 6 Big Catalysts For Its Future Growth! - Financial Forecasts

The Wingstop Fiscal Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings highlighted the company's substantial progress with its strategies involving...

Baptista Research

Monitoring Rising Treasury Yields & U.S. Dollar (DXY); What Would Lead Us to Get Cautious?

Monitoring Rising Treasury Yields & U.S. Dollar. 1-, 2-, and 10-year Treasury yields $TNX failing at shorter-term resistances today; $DXY below...

Vermilion Research

Restaurant & Retail Roundup - Takeaways from RFDC

Retailers outperform and restaurants underperform indexes on a MTD basis. For November 2023, the performance reversed, with retailers outperforming...

Water Tower Research

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