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Valens Research

Valens Equity Insights and Inflections - 2019 10 29

AXL currently trades below corporate averages relative to UAFRS-based (Uniform) Earnings, with an 11.9x Uniform P/E (Fwd V/E′). At these levels, the market is pricing in expectations for Uniform ROA to fade from 17% in 2018 to 5% in 2023, accompanied by 4% Uniform Asset growth going forward. Analysts have similar expectations, projecting Uniform ROA to fade to 10% in 2020, accompanied by 1% Uniform Asset shrinkage. Meanwhile, management is confident about their margins, sales, and cost management efforts. Current valuations appear to be pricing in overly bearish expectations for AXL, and should they see profitability remain stable or expand, as recent profitability trends and positive management sentiment would suggest, material upside would be warranted.

LCII Q2 2019 Embedded Expectations Analysis – Market expectations are for significant declines in Uniform ROA, but management is confident about operating margins, acquisitions, and market conditions

PINC Q4 2019 Embedded Expectations Analysis – Management is confident about their capital allocation, revenue, and guidance, which coupled with overly bearish market expectations, suggests that upside remains warranted

WBT Q2 2019 Embedded Expectations Analysis – Markets have expectations for Uniform ROA to fall significantly, but management is confident about net income, material costs, and their Crem business


AXL, LCII, PINC, WBT, ADNT, APD, ENTA, ENTG, FOXF, GM, IIVI, IOSP, IPGP, LL, MTW, ORCL, PII, STZ, SUM, X
Underlyings
Adient plc

Air Products and Chemicals Inc.

Air Products and Chemicals serves customers globally with a portfolio of products, services, and solutions that include atmospheric gases, process and other gases, equipment, and services. The company is a supplier of hydrogen and is engaged in helium and liquefied natural gas (LNG) process technology and equipment. The company also develops, engineers, builds, owns and operates industrial gas projects, including gasification projects that convert abundant natural resources into syngas for the production of power, fuels and chemicals. The company designs and manufactures equipment for air separation, hydrocarbon recovery and purification, LNG, and liquid helium and liquid hydrogen transport and storage.

AMERICAN AXLE & MANUFACTURING HLDGS

American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings is a supplier to the automotive industry. The company designs, engineers and manufactures driveline and metal forming products. The company's business is organized into Driveline and Metal Forming segments. Driveline products consist primarily of front and rear axles, driveshafts, differential assemblies, clutch modules, balance shaft systems, disconnecting driveline technology, and electric and hybrid driveline products and systems. Metal Forming products consist primarily of axle and transmission shafts, ring and pinion gears, differential gears and assemblies, connecting rods and variable valve timing products.

Constellation Brands Inc. Class A

Constellation Brands is an international beverage alcohol company. The company is a producer and marketer of beer, wine and spirits with operations in the U.S., Mexico, New Zealand, Italy and Canada. The company has two segments: Beer, in which the company is engaged in the U.S. beer market that includes the imported, craft, domestic super premium, and alternative beverage alcohol categories and it has the right to import, market and sell these Mexican beer brands in the U.S.; and Wine and Spirits, in which its wine portfolio is supported by grapes purchased from independent growers, primarily in the U.S., New Zealand and Chile, and vineyard holdings in the U.S., New Zealand and Italy.

Enanta Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Enanta Pharmaceuticals is a biotechnology company that creates small molecule drugs primarily for the treatment of viral infections and liver diseases. The company's wholly owned research and development programs are in virology, namely respiratory syncytial virus and hepatitis B virus, and in liver disease (non-virology), namely non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and primary biliary cholangitis. Through its Collaborative Development and License Agreement with AbbVie Inc (AbbVie), the company has discovered and out-licensed to AbbVie two protease inhibitor compounds that have been clinically tested, manufactured, and commercialized by AbbVie for the treatment of hepatitis C virus.

Entegris Inc.

Entegris is a developer, manufacturer and supplier of microcontamination control products, chemicals and materials handling solutions for manufacturing processes in the semiconductor and other industries. The company has three segments: Specialty Chemicals and Engineered Materials, which provides process chemistries, gases, and materials; Microcontamination Control, which provides solutions to filter and purify liquid chemistries and gases used in semiconductor manufacturing processes and other industries; and Advanced Materials Handling segment, which develops solutions to monitor, protect, transport, and deliver liquid chemistries, wafers and substrates.

Fox Factory Holding Corp.

Fox Factory Holding is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the company is a designer, manufacturer and marketer of products and systems used on bicycles, side-by-side vehicles, on-road vehicles with and without off-road capabilities, off-road vehicles and trucks, all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles, specialty vehicles and applications, motorcycles, and commercial trucks. In its powered vehicle product categories, the company provides products under the FOX, BDS Suspension, Zone Offroad, JKS Manufacturing, RT Pro UTV, 4x4 Posi-Lok, and Tuscany brands. The company's bike product offerings are used on a range of mountain bikes and road bikes under the FOX, Race Face, Easton Cycling and Marzocchi brands.

General Motors Company

General Motors designs, builds and sells trucks, crossovers, cars and automobile parts. The company also provides automotive financing services through its subsidiary, General Motors Financial Company, Inc. (GM Financial). GM Financial provides retail loan and lease lending across the credit spectrum. GM Financial provides commercial lending products to dealers including new and used vehicle inventory floorplan financing and dealer loans, which are loans to finance improvements to dealership facilities, to provide working capital, and to purchase and/or finance dealership real estate. Other commercial lending products include financing for parts and accessories, dealer fleets and storage centers.

II-VI Incorporated

II-VI develops, manufactures, and markets engineered materials, optoelectronic components, and devices for a range of applications. The company has three segments: II-VI Laser Solutions, which designs, manufactures, and markets optical and electro-optical components and materials sold under the II-VI Infrared brand name; II-VI Photonics, which manufactures crystal materials, optics, microchip lasers, and optoelectronic modules for use in optical communication networks and other consumer applications; and II-VI Performance Products, which designs, manufactures, and markets infrared optical components and optical assemblies for aerospace and defense, medical and commercial laser imaging applications.

Innospec Inc.

Innospec develops, manufactures, blends, markets and supplies chemicals for use as fuel additives, and ingredients for personal care, home care, agrochemical, mining and other applications and oilfield chemicals. The company has four segments: Fuel Specialties, which develops, manufactures, blends, markets and supplies a range of chemical products; Performance Chemicals, which provides products focused on the personal care, home care, agrochemical and mining markets; Oilfield Services, which develops and markets products to prevent loss of mud in drilling operations, and chemical solutions; and Octane Additives, which comprises sales of tetra ethyl lead for use in automotive gasoline.

IPG Photonics Corporation

IPG Photonics is a developer and manufacturer of a line of fiber lasers, fiber amplifiers and diode lasers that are used in various applications, primarily in materials processing. The company designs and manufactures a range of optical fiber-based lasers and amplifiers. The company also makes packaged diodes, direct diode lasers, laser systems and communications components and systems. A majority of the company's products are designed to be used as general-purpose energy or light sources.

LCI Industries

LCI Industries supplies an array of components for the original equipment manufacturers in the recreation and industrial product markets, consisting of recreational vehicles and adjacent industries including buses; trailers used to haul boats, livestock, equipment and other cargo; trucks; boats; trains; manufactured homes; and modular housing. The company also supplies components to the related aftermarkets of these industries, primarily by selling to retail dealers, wholesale distributors and service centers. The company's products include steel chassis and related components, axles and suspension solutions, slide-out mechanisms and solutions, and thermoformed bath, kitchen and other products.

Lumber Liquidators Holdings Inc.

Lumber Liquidators Holdings is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the company engages in business as a multi-channel retailer of hard-surface flooring, and hard-surface flooring improvements and accessories, operating as a single operating segment. The company provides exotic and domestic hardwood species, engineered hardwood, laminate, resilient vinyl, waterproof vinyl plank and porcelain tile flooring direct to the consumer. The company features the renewable flooring products, bamboo and cork, and provides a selection of flooring improvements and accessories, including moldings, noise-reducing underlayment, adhesives and flooring tools. The company also provides in-home delivery and installation services.

Manitowoc Company Inc.

Manitowoc is a provider of engineered lifting solutions. The company designs, manufactures and distributes a line of crawler-mounted lattice-boom cranes, which it sells under the Manitowoc brand name. The company also designs and manufactures top-slewing and self-erecting tower cranes, which it sells under the Potain brand name. The company designs and manufactures mobile telescopic cranes, which it sells under the Grove, Shuttlelift and National Crane brand names. The company provides crane product parts and services and crane rebuilding, remanufacturing and training services, which are delivered under the Manitowoc Crane Care brand name. The company's segments are: Americas, Europe and Africa, and Middle East and Asia Pacific.

Oracle Corporation

Oracle provides products and services that address enterprise information technology (IT) environments. The company's products and services include applications and infrastructure offerings. The company's cloud and license business engages in the sale, marketing and delivery of its applications and infrastructure technologies through cloud and on-premise deployment models including its cloud services and license support offerings; and its cloud license and on-premise license offerings. The company's hardware business provides Oracle Engineered Systems, servers, storage, industry-specific hardware, operating systems, virtualization, management and other hardware-related software to support diverse IT environments.

Polaris Inc.

Polaris designs, engineers and manufactures powersports vehicles which include, off-road vehicles, including all-terrain vehicles and side-by-side vehicles for recreational and utility use, snowmobiles, motorcycles, global adjacent markets vehicles, including commercial, government and defense vehicles, and boats. The company's products, together with related Parts, Garments and Accessories, as well as aftermarket accessories and apparel, are sold through dealers, distributors and retail stores principally located in the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia and Mexico.

Premier Inc. Class A

Premier is a holding company. The company, together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, is a healthcare performance improvement company. The company provides technology-enabled platform that provides supply chain services, clinical, financial, operational and value based care software-as-a-service informatics products, consulting services and performance improvement collaborative programs. The company has two business segments: Supply Chain Services, which assists its members in managing their non-labor expense and capital spend through a combination of products, services and technologies; and Performance Services, which provides information technology analytics and workflow automation and consulting services.

Summit Materials Inc. Class A

Summit Materials is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the company is a construction materials company. The company produces and sells aggregates, cement, ready-mix concrete, asphalt paving mix and concrete products and owns and operates quarries, sand and gravel pits, cement plants, cement distribution terminals, ready-mix concrete plants, asphalt plants and landfill sites. The company is engaged in paving and related services. The company has operations in various states across the United States and in British Columbia, Canada. The company operates a municipal waste landfill in its East segment, and has construction and demolition debris landfills and liquid asphalt terminal operations in its West and East segments.

United States Steel Corporation

United States Steel is a steel producer of flat-rolled and tubular products with production operations in the United States and Europe. The company is also engaged in railroad services and real estate operations. The company's segments are: North American Flat-Rolled, which produces slabs, strip mill plates, sheets and tin mill products; U. S. Steel Europe, which produces and sells slabs, strip mill plate, sheet, tin mill products and spiral welded pipe, as well as heating radiators and refractory ceramic materials; and Tubular Products, which produces and sells electric resistance welded steel casing and tubing (known as oil country tubular goods), and standard and line pipe and mechanical tubing.

Welbilt Inc

Welbilt is a commercial foodservice equipment company. The company designs, manufactures and supplies food and beverage equipment for the commercial foodservice market. The company's products are used by commercial and institutional foodservice operators including restaurants, quick-service restaurant chains, hotels, resorts, cruise ships, caterers, supermarkets, convenience stores, hospitals, schools and other institutions. The company's portfolio of brands includes Cleveland?, Convotherm?, Crem?, Delfield?, Frymaster?, Garland?, Kolpak?, Lincoln?, Manitowoc? Ice, Merco?, Merrychef? and Multiplex?. The company's products brands are supported by FitKitchen?, KitchenCare?, and KitchenConnect?.

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