Report
Valens Research

Valens Equity Insights and Inflections - 2019 04 03

MNK currently trades near historical lows relative to UAFRS-based (Uniform) Earnings, with a 6.5x Uniform P/E. At these levels, the market is pricing in expectations for Uniform ROA to decline from a record high of 44% in 2017 to 10% through 2022, accompanied by 6% Uniform Asset growth going forward. Meanwhile, analysts have less bearish expectations, projecting Uniform ROA to decline to 36% through 2019, accompanied by 1% Uniform Asset growth. However, management is confident about their Achtar sales growth, ongoing studies, and ability to sustain free cash flow. Should MNK just sustain profitability above historical averages, as positive management sentiment would suggest, upside would be warranted.


FOXF Q4 2018 Embedded Expectations Analysis – Market expectations are for declining Uniform ROA, and management has concerns about sales targets, product launches, and industry positioning

JD Q4 2018 Embedded Expectations Analysis – Market expectations are for declining Uniform ROA, but management is excited about JD Mall revenue, and confident in customer retention and apparel

SHW Q4 2018 Embedded Expectations Analysis – Market expectations are for Uniform ROA expansion, but management has concerns about margins, Valspar, and macroeconomic headwinds
Underlyings
AMC Networks Inc. Class A

AMC Networks is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the company is engaged in owning and operating entertainment businesses and assets. The company's operating segments are: National Networks, which includes activities of the company's programming businesses, which include programming networks such as AMC, WE tv, BBC AMERICA, IFC, and SundanceTV in the U.S., and AMC and IFC in Canada; and International and Other, which includes AMC Networks International, the company's international programming businesses consisting of a portfolio of channels; IFC Films, the company's independent film distribution business, and its subscription streaming services Acorn TV and UMC, Shudder and Sundance Now.

Avon Products Inc.

Avon Products is a manufacturer and marketer of beauty and related products. The company's product categories are Beauty and Fashion and Home. Beauty consists of skincare, fragrance and color (cosmetics). Fashion and Home consists of fashion jewelry, watches, apparel, footwear, accessories, gift and decorative products, housewares, entertainment and leisure products, children's products and nutritional products. The company's business is conducted primarily in one channel, direct selling. The company's reportable segments are based on geographic operations in four regions: Europe, Middle East & Africa; South Latin America; North Latin America; and Asia Pacific.

Estee Lauder Companies Inc. Class A

Estee Lauder Companies is a manufacturer and marketer of skin care, makeup, fragrance and hair care products. The company's products are sold under a number of brand names including: Estee Lauder, Clinique, Origins, MzAzC, Bobbi Brown, La Mer, Jo Malone London, Aveda and Too Faced. The company is also the global licensee for fragrances, cosmetics and/or related products sold under various designer brand names. The company's products include skin care, makeup and related items such as compacts, brushes and other makeup tools, fragrance sold in various forms, hair care, and other ancillary products and services.

Fidelity National Information Services Inc.

Fidelity National Information Services is a provider of technology solutions for merchants, banks, and capital markets firms globally. The company's solutions include merchant acquiring solutions; payment solutions; global eCommerce solutions; processing and ancillary applications solutions; digital solutions; fraud, risk management and compliance solutions; electronic funds transfer and network services solutions; card and retail payment solutions; wealth and retirement solutions; item processing and output services solutions; securities processing and finance solutions; global trading solutions; asset management and insurance solutions; and corporate liquidity solutions.

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.

H&R Block Inc.

H&R Block provides assisted, do-it-yourself, and virtual tax return preparation solutions through various channels (including in-person, online and mobile applications, virtual, and desktop software) and distributes the company-branded products and services to the general public in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and their respective territories. The company also provides additional services, such as Refund Transfers, its Peace of Mind? Extended Service Plan (POM), H&R Block Emerald Prepaid Mastercard?, H&R Block Emerald Advance? lines of credit, Tax Identity Shield?, and Refund Advance loans. For its Canadian clients the company also provides POM, H&R Block Instant Refund?, and H&R Block Pay With Refund? services.

Humana Inc.

Humana is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the company is a health and well-being company. The company manages its business with three segments: Retail, which consists of products sold on a retail basis to individuals including medical and supplemental benefit plans, such as Medicare and state-based Medicaid Contracts; Group and Specialty, which consists of employer group commercial fully-insured medical and specialty health insurance benefits, including dental, vision and life insurance benefits, as well as administrative services only; and Healthcare Services, which includes pharmacy solutions, provider services, clinical care services, and predictive modeling and informatics services

JD.com Inc. Sponsored ADR Class A

Mallinckrodt Plc

MGM Resorts International

MGM Resorts International is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the company owns and operates casino, hotel, and entertainment resorts across the United States and in Macau. The company's segments include: Las Vegas Strip Resorts, which consists of casino resorts such as Bellagio, MGM Grand Las Vegas, Mandalay Bay, The Mirage, Luxor, New York-New York, Excalibur, and Park MGM; Regional Operations, which consists of casino resorts such as MGM Grand Detroit, Beau Rivage, Gold Strike Tunica, Borgata, MGM National Harbor, MGM Springfield, Empire City, and MGM Northfield Park; and MGM China, which owns and operates casino resorts and the related gaming subconcession and land concessions.

Palo Alto Networks Inc.

Palo Alto Networks provides a platform that allows enterprises, service providers, and government entities to secure their organizations. The company's platform uses a traffic classification engine that identifies network traffic by application, user, and content and provides security across the network, endpoint, and cloud. The company's product, subscription, and support offerings include: firewall appliances and software; and Panorama, which is a centralized security management solution for global control of various firewall appliances and software deployed on an end-customer's network as well as in their instances in public or private cloud environments as a virtual appliance or a physical appliance.

Salesforce.com inc.

Salesforce.Com is engaged in customer relationship management technology. The company's Customer 360 is an integrated platform that unites sales, service, marketing, commerce, integration, analytics and more to give companies a single, shared view of their customers. Through its platform and other developer tools, the company also enables third parties to develop additional functionality and applications, or apps, that run on its platform, which are sold separately from or in conjunction with the company's service offerings. The company's cloud service offerings include sales cloud, service cloud, marketing and commerce cloud, and salesforce platform and other.

Sherwin-Williams Company

Sherwin-Williams is engaged in the development, manufacture, distribution and sale of paint, coatings and related products to industrial, commercial and retail customers. The company's segments are: The Americas Group, which markets and sells Sherwin-Williams? and other controlled brand architectural paint and coatings, protective and marine products, OEM product finishes and related products; Consumer Brands Group, which supplies architectural paints, stains, varnishes, and industrial products, among others; and Performance Coatings Group, which develops and sells industrial coatings, automotive refinish, protective and marine coatings, coil coatings, packaging coatings and resins and colorants.

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. Class A

Sinclair Broadcast Group is a television broadcasting company with using the company's spectrum to bring together content providers, advertisers, and consumers on various platforms. The content, distributed through the company's broadcast platform, consists of programming provided by third-party networks and syndicators, local news, the company's own networks, and other original programming produced by the company The company also distributes its original programming, and owned and operated network, on other third-party platforms. The company operates technical services companies focused on supply and maintenance of broadcast transmission systems as well as research and development for the development of broadcast technology.

Square Inc. Class A

Square is a commerce ecosystem that combines software with hardware to enable sellers to turn mobile devices and computing devices into payment and point-of-sale solutions. With the company's offering, a seller can accept payments via magnetic stripe, Europay, MasterCard, and Visa, or Near Field Communication; or online via Square Invoices, Square Virtual Terminal, or the seller's website or app. Also, sellers can gain access to reporting and analytics, next-day settlements, digital receipts, payment dispute and chargeback management, security, and Payment Card Industry compliance. The company's Cash App enable individuals to send and receive money electronically to and from individuals and businesses.

Tactile Systems Technology Inc.

Tactile Systems Technology is a medical technology company that develops and provides medical devices for the treatment of chronic diseases. The company is the manufacturer and distributor of the Flexitouch and Entre systems, medical devices that help control symptoms of lymphedema, a chronic and progressive medical condition, the Actitouch system, a medical device used to treat venous leg ulcers and chronic venous insufficiency, and the Airwear wrap, a medical device used for the management of venous insufficiency, venous hypertension, venous ulcerations and lymphedema. The company provides its products for use in the home and sells them through vascular, wound and lymphedema clinics.

TiVo Corp.

TiVo is engaged in media and entertainment products. The company provides a set of cloud-based services, embedded software solutions and intellectual property that enable people to find and enjoy online video, television programming, movies and music entertainment, including content discovery through device-embedded and cloud-based user experience, interactive program guides, digital video recorders, natural language voice and text search, cloud-based recommendations services and the company's entertainment metadata. The company's operations are organized into two reportable segments: Product and Intellectual Property Licensing.

Travel + Leisure Co.

Wyndham Destinations is a vacation ownership and exchange company. The company provides everyday travelers the opportunity to own, exchange or rent their vacation experience. The company's operations are grouped into two segments: Vacation Ownership, which is a timeshare business with resorts and owners that develops and markets vacation ownership interests (VOIs) to individual consumers, provide consumer financing in connection with the sale of VOIs, and provides property management services at resorts; and Vacation Exchange, which operates the vacation exchange network with members, and has relationships with vacation ownership resorts located in various countries and territories.

Provider
Valens Research
Valens Research

In 2009, just as the dust was settling from the last major equity and credit market crises, we launched a boutique research firm with the intention of breaking Wall Street’s biases and broken incentives:

  • GAAP and IFRS have failed to provide rules for reliable financial statement reporting
  • Stock analyst recommendations are not grounded in disciplined financial analysis
  • Credit agencies have been set up to grossly fail in their responsibilities to investors and the public markets
  • Utter lack of willingness of major research firms to employ the the most advanced forensic analysis available

We sought to provide investors and company analysts with a source of information that changed all that.
Many years later, our business model remains because little has changed on Wall Street.

  • Corporate credit ratings remain years behind the fundamental underpinnings of company performance
  • Stock analysts continue to make recommendations with deeply inherent biases
  • Research firms have failed to break down the walls between credit, equity, and macroeconomic research
  • The governing accounting bodies have created more leeway for mis-estimates and mis-classifications as financials have become unwieldy and overwhelming

The integrity of Valens Research is founded in our disciplined processes and analytics. No “star” analysts. No corporate advisory relationships. No-nonsense opinions and recommendations.

Analysts
Valens Research

Other Reports on these Companies
Other Reports from Valens Research

ResearchPool Subscriptions

Get the most out of your insights

Get in touch