In today’s briefing:
- Korea Small Cap Gem #36: FnGuide [Increasing Moat for Its Index Business]
- Sun Pharmaceutical (SUNP IN): Timely Succession Plan to Augur Well for Next-Level of Growth
- Newmont Corporation (NYSE: NEM) – Strong Q1, Tier 1 Growth Ahead, Significant Upside if Gold Holds
- Baidu Inc.: Dealing With The Uncertain Commercial Viability of Autonomous Driving
- Relative Value Roundup: Performance Recap of Financial Pair Trades
- Alibaba’s Bold AI & Cloud Bet Is Driving Our Optimism–But It Comes at A BIG COST!
- Palantir’s Parabolic Surge: Meme Stock Mania Or AI Megatrend in Motion?
- iQIYI Inc.: Growing Its Content Ecosystem & Executing Overseas Market Expansion to Help Alter The Playing Field?
- Dell Technologies: AI Server Integration & Backlog Growth As A Pivotal Growth Lever!
- Copart Is Winning Big From Insurance Chaos—Here’s How It’s Snatching Market Share!
Korea Small Cap Gem #36: FnGuide [Increasing Moat for Its Index Business]
- FnGuide has been able to capitalize on its excellent brand name in the financial industry (especially for research used in equity trading) to profitably expand into the index development business.
- Although the index business accounted for 25% of its sales in 2024, it has been the fastest growing business in the past six years.
- Valuations are reasonable and it is trading at 27% below four year historical EV/EBITDA basis. We like FnGuide as a long-term investment story.
Sun Pharmaceutical (SUNP IN): Timely Succession Plan to Augur Well for Next-Level of Growth
- Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (SUNP IN) is appointing Kirti Ganorkar as the Managing Director to succeed Dilip Shanghvi, effective September 1, 2025, with the entire business reporting to him.
- In another development, Richard Ascroft will be joining as CEO – North America, succeeding Abhay Gandhi. Aalok Shanghvi has been additionally entrusted with the responsibility for the North America business.
- Succession plan and management rejig come at a time when SPIL is at an inflection point, with its India business being on a strong foothold and specialty business gaining traction.
Newmont Corporation (NYSE: NEM) – Strong Q1, Tier 1 Growth Ahead, Significant Upside if Gold Holds
- Recent Results: Newmont delivered a strong Q1 2025 performance with record free cash flow of $1.2 billion, driven by higher gold prices and increased production from Tier 1 assets.
- Future Plans: The company plans to ramp up Tier 1 output to ~6.7 Moz by 2028, led by projects like Ahafo North, Tanami Expansion 2, and Cadia block-cave development.
- Valuation Upside: If current gold prices around $3,400/oz persist, Newmont’s earnings could double vs. consensus, unlocking over 50% potential upside from current share levels.
Baidu Inc.: Dealing With The Uncertain Commercial Viability of Autonomous Driving
- Baidu, Inc. delivered a solid performance in the first quarter of 2025, with its Baidu Core division reporting a 7% year-over-year revenue increase, reaching RMB 25.5 billion.
- This growth was primarily driven by a substantial surge in its AI cloud business, which saw a 42% increase year-over-year, contributing significantly to Baidu Core’s overall revenue.
- A notable development within this business unit is the expansion of the AI cloud’s role in Baidu’s operations, now accounting for 26% of Baidu Core’s revenue, up from 20% in the previous year.
Relative Value Roundup: Performance Recap of Financial Pair Trades
- Context: This Insight follows up on previously highlighted relative value opportunities, using a statistical methodology based on mean-reversion to identify opportunities in paired securities.
- Highlight: Two pair trade opportunities in the Indian financial sector persist, with price ratios exceeding two standard deviations from their historical means.
- Why read: Statistical analysis offers a unique perspective on relative value. Gain insights into actionable statistical pair trade opportunities and monitor performance of previously highlighted pairs.
Alibaba’s Bold AI & Cloud Bet Is Driving Our Optimism–But It Comes at A BIG COST!
- Alibaba Group delivered a mixed performance in the March quarter and for the full fiscal year 2025, showing resilience in its core operations while falling short of analyst expectations on key financial metrics.
- The company reported revenue of $32.58 billion for the quarter, marking a 7% year-over-year increase, but this fell below projections of $33.28 billion.
- Net income for the period came in at $1.71 billion, significantly lower than the anticipated $2.93 billion.
Palantir’s Parabolic Surge: Meme Stock Mania Or AI Megatrend in Motion?
- Palantir Technologies has become one of Wall Street’s most polarizing success stories in 2025.
- Riding a 76% year-to-date gain and clocking in at more than 460% over the past 12 months, the company’s stock has reached new highs, closing at a record for three consecutive sessions earlier this month.
- The surge puts it in league with speculative darlings like CoreWeave and even evokes comparisons to meme stock veterans such as GameStop.
iQIYI Inc.: Growing Its Content Ecosystem & Executing Overseas Market Expansion to Help Alter The Playing Field?
- iQIYI’s first-quarter 2025 results exhibited growth across several key business segments, though certain challenges remain.
- The company experienced sequential growth in total revenues, largely attributed to their emphasis on premium content production and strong performance in long-form and micro-dramas.
- This focus has effectively positioned iQIYI as a leading platform for both long-form and short-form entertainment content, contributing positively to user engagement and content consumption.
Dell Technologies: AI Server Integration & Backlog Growth As A Pivotal Growth Lever!
- Dell Technologies Inc.’s fiscal year 2026 first quarter financial results provide a mixed but generally positive view of the company’s current performance and future prospects.
- The company reported revenue of $23.4 billion, a growth of 5% year-over-year.
- This increase was driven by robust performance across its core markets, particularly in Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG) and Client Solutions Group (CSG), each growing by 8%.
Copart Is Winning Big From Insurance Chaos—Here’s How It’s Snatching Market Share!
- Copart, Inc.’s Q3 2025 earnings highlight several noteworthy aspects of its performance and market dynamics, offering a balanced view of the company’s current standing and future challenges.
- The company’s global unit sales increased by 1%, with a more notable rise of 2% on a per-business-day basis.
- This growth, however, masks a flat performance in the U.S. segment and a decrease in U.S. insurance unit volume by nearly 1% year-over-year.
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