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Valens Research

Valens Equity Insights and Inflections - 2022 01 04

HCA Healthcare (HCA) intelligently grew its portfolio of hospitals during the pandemic,
positioning it better for the future. Uniform Accounting highlights that the market is
pricing in a reversal of HCA's historical profitability trends, signaling the potential for
equity upside.

For the last 12+ years, HCA Healthcare has consistently grown its network of hospitals to
be the largest chain in the country. Along the way, it has continuously realized efficiencies
that have pushed Uniform ROA to new highs year over year.

The company used the pandemic as a way to buy struggling hospitals at a discount, and
when pandemic headwinds subside, it will be better positioned than it was before. The
market seems to be pricing in permanent pandemic headwinds, suggesting the company
should be able to outperform the market's expectations.

HCA's management is closely aligned to focus on profitable growth, and the founders'
substantial holdings keeps them aligned with the company's long-term success.

Management confidence in the Q3 earnings call about market share, competitive
advantage, and the pricing environment suggest management is executing on the
company's ongoing strategy.

TRU Q3 2021 Embedded Expectations Analysis – Markets expectations are for Uniform ROA to reach new highs, but management may have concerns about growth and their recent acquisitions

GPN Q3 2021 Embedded Expectations Analysis – Market expectations are for Uniform ROA to fade, but management is confident about growth, buybacks, and M&A

PYPL Q4 2021 Embedded Expectations Analysis – Market expectations are for Uniform ROA expansion, but management may have concerns about their growth and their products and services

HCA, GPN, PYPL, TRU, ARMK, EBAY, NXPI, TDG, WW
Underlyings
Aramark

Aramark is a provider of food, facilities and uniform services. The company manages its Food and Support Services (FSS) business in segments split between its United States and International operations. The company's FSS segments manage a number of interrelated services-including food, hospitality, procurement and facility services-for school districts, colleges and universities, healthcare facilities, businesses, sports, entertainment and recreational venues, conference and convention centers, national and state parks and correctional institutions. The company's Uniform and Career Apparel segment provides employee uniform solution, including design, sourcing and manufacturing, delivery, cleaning and maintenance.

EBay Inc.

eBay is a global commerce provider, which includes its Marketplace, StubHub and Classifieds platforms. The company's Marketplace platforms include its online marketplace located at www.ebay.com, its localized counterparts and the eBay suite of mobile apps. The company's StubHub platforms include its online ticket platform located at www.stubhub.com, its localized counterparts and the StubHub mobile apps. These platforms connect fans with their favorite sporting events, shows and artists and enable them to buy and sell tickets whenever and wherever they want. The company's Classifieds platforms include a collection of brands such as mobile.de, Kijiji, Gumtree, Marktplaats, eBay Kleinanzeigen and others.

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.

HCA Healthcare Inc

HCA Healthcare is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, partnerships and joint ventures, the company owns and operates hospitals and related health care entities. Most of the company's general, acute care hospitals provide medical and surgical services, including inpatient care, intensive care, cardiac care, diagnostic services and emergency services. The general, acute care hospitals also provide outpatient services such as outpatient surgery, laboratory, radiology, respiratory therapy, cardiology and physical therapy. The company's psychiatric hospitals provide therapeutic programs including child, adolescent and adult psychiatric care, adolescent and adult alcohol and drug abuse treatment and counseling.

NXP Semiconductors NV

NXP Semiconductors is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, Co. is engaged as a global semiconductor company and a long-standing supplier in the industry. Co. provides High-Performance Mixed-Signal and Standard Product solutions. Co.'s product solutions are used in automotive, identification, wireless infrastructure, lighting, industrial, mobile, consumer and computing applications. Co. engages with original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and sell products in all major geographic regions.

PayPal Holdings Inc

PayPal Holdings is a technology platform and digital payments company that enables digital and mobile payments on behalf of consumers and merchants worldwide. The company's combined payment solutions include its PayPal, PayPal Credit, Braintree, Venmo, Xoom and iZettle products and services. PayPal's payment solutions enable the company's customers to send and receive payments. PayPal helps merchants and consumers connect, transact, and complete payments, whether they are online, on a mobile device, in an app, or in person. The company provides proprietary payment solutions accepted by merchants that enable the completion of payments on the company's Payments Platform on behalf of its customers.

TransDigm Group Incorporated

TransDigm Group is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the company designs, produces and supplies aircraft components for use on commercial and military aircraft. The company's segments are: Power and Control, which develops, produces and markets systems and components that provide power to or control power of the aircraft utilizing electronic, fluid, power and mechanical motion control technologies; Airframe, which develops, produces and markets systems and components that are used in non-power airframe applications utilizing airframe and cabin structure technologies; and Non-aviation, which develops, produces and markets products for non-aviation markets.

TransUnion

TransUnion is an information and insights company. The company provides consumer reports, actionable insights and analytics such as credit and other scores, and decisioning capabilities to businesses. The company has the following reportable segments: United States Markets, which provides consumer reports, actionable insights and analytics such as credit and other scores, and decisioning capabilities to businesses; International, which provides services similar to its United States Markets segment to businesses in select regions outside the United States; and Consumer Interactive, which provides solutions that help consumers manage their personal finances and take precautions against identity theft.

WW International Inc.

WW International is a wellness company and provider of commercial weight management program. The company's Weight Management Program and Plan is comprised of a range of nutritional, activity, behavioral and lifestyle tools and approaches, and includes its food plan, known as SmartPoints. The company's services and products include digital offerings provided through its websites, mobile sites and apps, workshops conducted by the company and its franchisees, consumer products sold direct to consumers, licensed and endorsed products sold in retail channels, and publications. The company provides subscriptions for its digital products and for itsworkshops.

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

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