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>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?

High Quality Stock Setups, Weekly Stock Bull Finder

Weekly Stock Bull Finder

High Quality Stock Setups

Finding high potential stock setups on quality companies

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ul><li>With the upcoming first quarter earnings season taking center stage the next 3 weeks, there is yet again a well overdue reprieve from the back and forth focus on hiking, pausing, and cutting next steps of the Federal Reserve.</li><li>The focus now goes back to company earnings and forward guidance and whether slowdowns picked up on ISM, PMI, and regional Fed surveys are now making its way through earnings reports.</li><li>While still early, the first 22 S&amp;P 500 Index companies reveal a 20% drop in earnings QoQ.</li></ul>

With the upcoming first quarter earnings season taking center stage the next 3 weeks, there is yet again a well overdue reprieve from the back and forth focus on hiking, pausing, and cutting next steps of the Federal Reserve.The focus now goes back to company earnings and forward guidance and whether slowdowns picked up on ISM, PMI, and regional Fed surveys are now making its way through earnings reports.While still early, the first 22 S&amp;P 500 Index companies reveal a 20% drop in earnings QoQ.

<ul>
<li>Over the past two weeks, we have been steadfast in our belief that this current rally/short squeeze is likely to fizzle in the 4100-4165 area on the S&amp;P 500.</li>
<li>There has yet to be any meaningful deterioration and we cannot rule out the SPX reaching higher, potentially for 4300-4325 (August 2022 highs).</li>
<li>We continue to preach caution and believe upside is limited on the market indexes. Any combination of a continued strong labor market or hotter-than-expected inflation could upset the market.</li>
</ul>


Over the past two weeks, we have been steadfast in our belief that this current rally/short squeeze is likely to fizzle in the 4100-4165 area on the S&amp;P 500.
There has yet to be any meaningful deterioration and we cannot rule out the SPX reaching higher, potentially for 4300-4325 (August 2022 highs).
We continue to preach caution and believe upside is limited on the market indexes. Any combination of a continued strong labor market or hotter-than-expected inflation could upset the market.


Downgrading Energy; SPX Final Reach Up to 4300-4325?; Buys in Restaurants, Retailers, Industrials

Fundamental Short Selling Research

Eric Fernandez, CFA

TwoRiversAnalytics

<ul>
<li>Our breaking growth model uncovers slowing growth, margin declines, sales and/or earnings disappointments, troubling working capital trends, poor estimate trends or lowered guidance.</li>
<li>These shorts tend to have moderate to higher betas, time horizons of three to twelve months, higher valuations due to historically strong growth and are often “market darlings”.  </li>
<li>The short response, when growth breaks, is based on a downward reassessment of future growth potential frequently aided by multiple compression that accelerates the decline.</li>
</ul>


Our breaking growth model uncovers slowing growth, margin declines, sales and/or earnings disappointments, troubling working capital trends, poor estimate trends or lowered guidance.
These shorts tend to have moderate to higher betas, time horizons of three to twelve months, higher valuations due to historically strong growth and are often “market darlings”.  
The short response, when growth breaks, is based on a downward reassessment of future growth potential frequently aided by multiple compression that accelerates the decline.


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.

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Wingstop Inc (WING US)

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

Weekly Stock Bullfinder - Week of 4/17

The focus now goes back to company earnings and forward guidance and whether slowdowns picked up on ISM, PMI, and regional Fed surveys are now...

Weekly Stock Bull Finder

Downgrading Energy; SPX Final Reach Up to 4300-4325?; Buys in Restaurants, Retailers, Industrials

We have expected this squeeze to fizzle in the 4100-4165 $SPX area, but with no meaningful deterioration, we could see the $SPX reach for 4300-4325...

Vermilion Research

Breaking Growth Short Candidates

Get a glimpse into our short idea generation process through our Breaking Growth model update. This week: Insulet, Generac, Catalent and Wingstop...

Eric Fernandez, CFA

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