Report
Valens Research

Valens Equity Insights and Inflections - 2020 07 14

BKNG currently trades below historical averages relative to Uniform assets, with a 54.8x
Uniform P/B (V/A'). At these levels, the market is pricing in expectations for Uniform ROA to
compress from 412% in 2019 to 172% in 2024, accompanied by 13% Uniform asset growth
going forward. Meanwhile, analysts have similar expectations, projecting Uniform ROA to
collapse to 4% in 2020, amidst industry-related headwinds, before recovering to just 262% in 2021, accompanied by 1% Uniform asset contraction. That said, management is confident about their investments, merchant platform, and M&A. Current valuations appear to be pricing in overly bearish expectations for BKNG, and should the firm see profitability remain near current levels or improve, as positive management sentiment suggests, material upside would be warranted.

VRSK Q1 2020 Embedded Expectations Analysis – Market expectations are for slight Uniform ROA improvement, and management is confident about end market strength, innovation, and strategies

JCOM Q1 2020 Embedded Expectations Analysis – Market expectations are for record-low Uniform ROA, but management is confident about growth, their various platforms, and cancellation rates

EGP Q1 2020 Embedded Expectations Analysis – Market expectations are for Uniform ROA to reach all-time highs, but management may have concerns about the Houston market, their retention rates, and rent collection

BKNG, EGP, JCOM, VRSK, ADM, APA, BAH, BBY, BCO, BSX, CREE, EL, FLT, GPN, HXL, MSCI, OXY, UPWK, X, YUM
Underlyings
APA Corp.

Apache is an independent energy company that explores for, develops, and produces natural gas, crude oil, and natural gas liquids. The company had exploration and production operations in United States, Egypt, and offshore United Kingdom in the North Sea. The company also has exploration interests in Suriname. The company markets its United States crude oil production to main oil companies, marketing, and transportation companies, and refiners based on a West Texas Intermediate price or other regional pricing indices. The company has two international regions: The Egypt includes onshore conventional assets in Egypt's Western Desert. The North Sea region includes offshore assets based in United Kingdom.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Company

Archer Daniels Midland is a human and animal nutrition and an agricultural origination and processing company. The company has three segments: Ag Services and Oilseeds, which includes activities related to the origination, merchandising, transportation, and storage of agricultural raw materials, and the crushing and further processing of oilseeds such as soybeans and soft seeds into vegetable oils and protein meals; Carbohydrate Solutions, which is engaged in corn and wheat wet and dry milling and other activities; and Nutrition, which engages in the manufacturing, sale, and distribution of an array of products including plant-based proteins, natural flavor ingredients, and flavor systems.

Best Buy Co. Inc.

Best Buy provides computing and mobile phones, consumer electronics, appliances, entertainment, services and other products. The company operates two reportable segments: Domestic, which is comprised of the operations in all states, districts and territories of the U.S. under various brand names including Best Buy, bestbuy.com, Best Buy Direct, Best Buy Express, Best Buy Mobile, Geek Squad, GreatCall, Magnolia and Pacific Kitchen and Home; and International, which is comprised of all operations in Canada and Mexico under the brand names Best Buy, Best Buy Express, Best Buy Mobile, Geek Squad and the domain names bestbuy.ca and bestbuy.com.mx.

Booking Holdings Inc.

Booking Holdings provides travel and restaurant online reservation and related services. The company's brands include: Booking.com and Rentalcars.com, in which Booking.com provides booking online accommodation reservations, based on room nights booked, and Rentalcars.com provides online rental car reservation services; KAYAK, which provides an online price comparison service; Priceline, which provides consumers hotel, rental car and airline ticket reservation services, and vacation packages and cruises; Agoda, which is an online accommodation reservation service; and OpenTable, which provides online restaurant reservation services to consumers and reservation management services to restaurants.

Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation Class A

Booz Allen Hamilton Holding is a holding company. The company provides management and technology consulting, analytics, engineering, digital solutions, mission operations, and cyber knowledge to U.S. and international governments, corporations, and non-profit organizations. The company's services are: Consulting, which focuses on solving client problems and developing mission-oriented solutions; Analytics, which includes decision analytics, automation, and data science solutions; Digital Solutions, which develops, designs, and implements solutions; Engineering, which delivers engineering services and solutions; and Cyber, which focuses on active prevention, detection, and cost effectiveness.

BOSTON SCIENTIFIC CORPORATION

Boston Scientific develops, manufactures and markets medical devices. The company's Medical Surgical segment consist of: Endoscopy, which develops and manufactures devices to diagnose and treat a range of gastrointestinal and pulmonary conditions; and Urology and Pelvic Health, which develops and manufactures devices to treat various urological and pelvic conditions. The company's Rhythm and Neuro segment includes: Cardiac Rhythm Management, which develops and manufactures implantable devices to treat cardiac abnormalities; and Electrophysiology, which develops and manufactures medical technologies used in the diagnosis and treatment of rate and rhythm disorders of the heart.

Brink's Company

Brink's is engaged in total cash management, route-based logistics and payment solutions including cash-in-transit, automated teller machine (ATM) services, cash management services, including vault outsourcing, money processing, and safe services, and international transportation of valuables. The company's service offerings, among others, include: cash-in-transit services, which include the transportation of cash between businesses and financial institutions; ATM services, which provide customers who own and operate ATMs a variety of service options; global services, which provide transportation of commodities; and CompuSafe? service, which provides a closed-loop system.

Cree Inc.

Cree is a provider of bandgap semiconductor products for power and radio-frequency (RF) applications and lighting-class light emitting diode (LED) products. The company's products are used for applications such as transportation, power supplies, inverters, wireless systems, indoor and outdoor lighting, electronic signs and signals and video displays. The company operates in two segments: Wolfspeed, which consists of silicon carbide and gallium nitride (GaN) materials, power devices and RF devices based on silicon and bandgap semiconductor materials; and LED Products, which consists of LED chips and LED components. The company's LED chip products include blue and green LED chips based on GaN and related materials.

EastGroup Properties Inc.

EastGroup Properties is an equity real estate investment trust. The company is focused on the development, acquisition and operation of industrial properties in key Sunbelt markets throughout the United States, primarily in the states of Florida, Texas, Arizona, California and North Carolina. The company has one reportable segment which is industrial properties.

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.

FLEETCOR Technologies Inc.

FleetCor Technologies is provider of commercial payment solutions. The company's five primary product lines are Fuel, which provides fuel payment solutions to businesses and government entities who operate vehicle fleets, as well as to main oil companies;Lodging, which provides lodging payment solutions to employees who travel overnight for work purposes; Tolls, which provides an electronic toll and parking payments product; Corporate Payments, which include virtual cards, purchasing cards, travel and entertainment cards; and Gift, which provides gift card product management and processing services. Additionally, the company provides other payment products including fleet maintenance and employee benefits.

Global Payments Inc.

Global Payments is a pure play payment technology company providing payments and software solutions to merchants and financial institutions. The company has three segments: Merchant Solutions, which includes authorization services, chargeback resolution, and payment security services; Issuer Solutions, which provides solutions that enable financial institutions and other financial service providers to manage their card portfolios and reduces technical difficulty and overhead on a single platform; and Business and Consumer Solutions, which provides general purpose reloadable prepaid debit and payroll cards, demand deposit accounts and other financial service solutions through its Netspend? brand.

Hexcel Corporation

Hexcel is a composites company with two reportable segments. The Composite Materials segment manufactures and markets carbon fibers, fabrics and specialty reinforcements, prepregs and other fiber-reinforced matrix materials, structural adhesives, honeycomb, molding compounds, tooling materials, polyurethane systems and laminates that are incorporated into several applications, including military and commercial aircraft, wind turbine blades, recreational products, transportation and other industrial applications. The Engineered Products segment manufactures and markets composite structures and precision machined honeycomb parts primarily for use in the aerospace industry.

J2 Global Inc.

j2 Global is holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the company provides internet services. The company manages its operations through two business segments: Cloud Services and Digital Media. The company's Cloud Services provides the following cloud services and solutions: fax; voice; backup; security; email marketing products; IP licensing; global network and operations; and customer support services. The company's Digital Media properties and services include the following: technology; gaming; healthcare; display and video advertising; and tools and services.

MSCI Inc. Class A

MSCI is a provider of decision support tools and services for the global investment community. The company's segments are: Index, in which Clients use the company's indexes in various areas of the investment process, including index-linked product creation; Analytics, which provides risk management, performance attribution and portfolio management content, applications and services; Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), which helps institutional investors understand how ESG considerations can impact the long-term risk and reward of their portfolio and individual security-level investments; and Real Estate, which includes research, reporting, market data and benchmarking offerings.

Occidental Petroleum Corporation

Occidental Petroleum has three reporting segments: oil and gas, which explores for, develops and produces oil and condensate, natural gas liquids (NGL) and natural gas; chemical, which mainly manufactures and markets basic chemicals (chlorine, caustic soda, chlorinated organics, potassium chemicals, ethylene dichloride, chlorinated isocyanurates, sodium silicates and calcium chloride) and vinyls (vinyl chloride monomer, polyvinyl chloride and ethylene); and marketing and midstream, which purchases, markets, gathers, processes, transports and stores oil, condensate, NGL, natural gas, carbon dioxide and power.

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.

Upwork

UPWORK operates an online talent marketplace, which enables businesses to find and work with independent personnel. Freelancers on the company's platform include independent personnel and agencies of varying sizes. The company's marketplace offerings include Upwork Basic, Upwork Plus, Upwork Business, Upwork Enterprise, and Upwork Payroll. The company,'s Upwork Basic offering provides clients with access to freelance talent with verified work history on its platform and client feedback, the ability to match with the freelancers, and built-in collaboration features. The company's Upwork Plus provides all the product features of Upwork Basic, as well as access to personalized assistance, whether strategic or job-specific.

Verisk Analytics Inc

Verisk Analytics is a data analytics provider serving customers in insurance, energy and specialized markets, and financial services. The company has three segments: Insurance, which provides underwriting and ratings and claims insurance data for the United States property and casualty insurance industry; Energy and Specialized Markets, which provides research and consulting data analytics for the global energy, chemicals, and metals and mining industries; and Financial Services, which provides benchmarking, decisioning algorithms, business intelligence, and customized analytic services to financial institutions, payment networks and processors, alternative lenders, regulators and merchants.

Yum! Brands Inc.

Yum! Brands franchises or operates a system of quick service restaurants through its KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell brands. The company's operating segments consist of the KFC Division, the Pizza Hut Division and the Taco Bell Division. KFC restaurants provides fried and non-fried chicken products such as sandwiches, chicken strips, chicken-on-the-bone and other chicken products marketed under a variety of names. Pizza Hut is engaged in the sale of ready-to-eat pizza products. Pizza Hut operates in the delivery, carryout and casual dining segments. Taco Bell is engaged in Mexican-style food products, including various types of tacos, burritos, quesadillas, salads, nachos and other related items.

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.

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