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Valens Research

Valens Equity Insights and Inflections - 2019 07 03

ASGN currently trades below corporate averages relative to UAFRS-based (Uniform) Earnings, with a 12.8x Uniform P/E. At these levels, the market is pricing in expectations for Uniform ROA to decline from 48% in 2018 to 23% in 2023, accompanied by 8% Uniform Asset growth going forward. However, analysts have less bearish expectations, projecting Uniform ROA to only fade to 47% in 2020, accompanied by 12% Uniform Asset growth. Meanwhile, management is excited about the durability of their profit margin, and confident in their performance, billable day basis growth, and the strength of their end markets. Should ASGN just sustain profitability near current levels, as positive management sentiment would suggest, upside would be warranted.

NFLX Q1 2019 Embedded Expectations Analysis – Market expectations are for Uniform ROA expansion, but management has concerns about show launches, content, and growth.

LKQ Q1 2019 Embedded Expectations Analysis – Market expectations are for declines in Uniform ROA, and management has concerns about growth, investments, and markets.

PINC Q3 2019 Embedded Expectations Analysis – Management is confident about their portfolio management and flexibility, which coupled with overly bearish market expectations, suggests that upside remains warranted.

ASGN, AVB, CHK, CMCS.A, ECL, FIS, JNJ, K, LKO, LLL, NFLX, NIO, ON, PINC, RRC, SBAC, SJM, WLL, WY.
Underlyings
ASGN Inc

ASGN provides information technology (IT) and other services in the technology, digital, creative, engineering and life sciences fields across commercial and government sectors. The company's segments are: Apex, which provides technical, digital, creative, scientific and engineering personnel for contract, contract-to-hire, and permanent placement positions to clients across the United States and Canada; Oxford, which provides staffing and permanent placement services in select skill and geographic markets in the United States and Europe; and ECS, which delivers solutions in cloud, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, machine learning, application and IT modernization, science and engineering.

AvalonBay Communities Inc.

AvalonBay Communities is a real estate investment trust. The company develops, redevelops, acquires, owns and operates multifamily communities primarily in New England, the New York/New Jersey metro area, the Mid-Atlantic, the Pacific Northwest, and Northern and Southern California. The company owns or holds a direct or indirect ownership interest in: operating apartment communities containing apartment homes in various states and the District of Columbia; communities under development; and rights to develop an additional communities.

Chesapeake Energy Corporation

Chesapeake Energy is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the company is an independent exploration and production company engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of properties to produce oil, natural gas and natural gas liquid from underground reservoirs. The company owns a portfolio of onshore U.S. liquids and natural gas assets. The company has positions in the resource plays of the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas, the stacked pay in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and the Anadarko Basin in northwestern Oklahoma. The company's natural gas resource plays are the Marcellus Shale in the northern Appalachian Basin in Pennsylvania and the Haynesville/Bossier Shales in northwestern Louisiana.

Comcast Corporation Class A

Comcast is a media and technology company. The company's segments are: Cable Communications, which provides internet, video, voice, and security and automation services in the United States individually and as bundled services at a discounted rate over its cable distribution system to residential and business customers; NBCUniversal, which includes a portfolio of national cable networks that provide a variety of entertainment, news and information, and sports content, regional sports and news networks, international cable networks, and cable television studio production operations; and Sky, which owns a portfolio of pay television channels that provide entertainment, news, sports and movies.

Ecolab Inc.

Ecolab is a provider of water, hygiene and energy technologies and services. The company's segments include: Global Industrial, which provides water treatment and process applications, and cleaning and sanitizing solutions in the manufacturing, food and beverage processing, chemical, power generation, pharmaceutical and commercial laundry industries; Global Institutional, which provides cleaning and sanitizing products to the foodservice, hospitality, lodging, healthcare, government, education and retail industries; and Global Energy, which serves the process chemicals and water treatment needs of the global petroleum and petrochemical industries in both upstream and downstream applications.

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.

J.M. Smucker Company

Smucker (J.M.) manufactures and markets food and beverage products. The company's principal products are coffee, dog food, pet snacks, cat food, peanut butter, fruit spreads, frozen handheld products, shortening and oils, portion control products, juices and beverages, and flour and baking ingredients. The company has four reportable segments: U.S. Retail Coffee, U.S. Retail Consumer Foods, and U.S. Retail Pet Foods, and International and Away From Home. The U.S. retail market segments represent the sales of food and beverage products to consumers through retail outlets in North America. The International and Away From Home segment represents sales outside of the U.S. retail market segments.

Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson is a holding company engaged in the research and development, manufacture and sale of a range of products in the health care field. The company has three business segments: Consumer, which includes a range of products focused on personal healthcare used in the beauty, over-the-counter pharmaceutical, baby care, oral care, women's health and wound care markets; Pharmaceutical, which is focused on six therapeutic areas: immunology, infectious diseases, neuroscience, oncology, cardiovascular and metabolism and pulmonary hypertension; and Medical Devices, which includes products used in the orthopaedic, surgery, interventional solutions, and eye health fields.

Kellogg Company

Kellogg is engaged in the manufacture and marketing of ready-to-eat cereal and convenience foods. The company's principal products are snacks, such as crackers, savory snacks, toaster pastries, cereal bars, granola bars and bites; and convenience foods, such as, ready-to-eat cereals, frozen waffles, veggie foods and noodles. The company's snacks brands are marketed under brands such as Kellogg's, Cheez-It, Pringles, Austin, Parati, and RXBAR. The company's cereals and cereal bars are generally marketed under the Kellogg's name, with some under the Kashi and Bear Naked brands. The company's frozen foods are marketed under the Eggo and Morningstar Farms brands.

L3 Technologies Inc

L3 Technologies is a defense technology company. The company's segments include: Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance systems, which provides engineering, modernization and sustainment solutions for military and various government aircraft, ground support equipment and other platforms; Communications and Networked Systems, which provides network and communication systems, communications products, radio frequency components, satellite communication terminals and space, microwave and telemetry products; and Electronic Systems, which provides a range of products and services, including components, products, subsystems, systems and related services to military and commercial customers.

Lakes Oil N.L.

Lakes Oil is engaged in hydrocarbon exploration and investment. Co. has two reportable segments. Co.'s first segment is engaged in the exploration for hydrocarbon reserves, principally in on-shore regions of Victoria, Australia. Co.'s second segment is engaged in the investment in entities engaged in exploration for energy reserves.

Netflix Inc.

Netflix is engaged in subscription streaming entertainment service including TV series, documentaries and feature films across a variety of genres and languages. Members can watch as much as they want, anytime, anywhere, on any internet-connected screen. Members can play, pause and resume watching, without commercials. Additionally, several members in the United States subscribe to the company's DVD-by-mail service. The company improves its streaming content with a focus on a programming mix of content. The company's members can download a selection of titles for offline viewing. The company operates its business as a global operating segment.

NIO Inc. Sponsored ADR Class A

ON Semiconductor Corporation

ON Semiconductor is engaged in energy efficient electronics. The company is organized into three segments: Power Solutions Group, which provides a range of discrete, module and integrated semiconductor products; Analog Solutions Group, which designs and develops analog, mixed-signal, and advanced logic application specific integrated circuits and Application Specific Standard Product, and power solutions; and Image Sensor Group, which designs and develops complementary metal oxide semiconductor and charge-coupled device image sensors, as well as proximity sensors, image signal processors and actuator drivers for autofocus and image stabilization for automotive and industrial markets, among others.

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.

Range Resources Corporation

Range Resources is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the company is an independent natural gas, natural gas liquids and oil company, engaged in the exploration, development and acquisition of natural gas and oil properties, located in the Appalachian and North Louisiana regions of the United States, primarily in the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania and the Lower Cotton Valley formation in Louisiana.

SBA Communications Corp. Class A

SBA Communications is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the company is an owner and operator of wireless communications infrastructure, including tower structures, rooftops, and other structures that support antennas used for wireless communications. The company's operations are in the U.S. and its territories. In its site leasing business, the company leases antenna space to wireless service providers on towers that the company owns or operates and manages rooftop and tower sites for property owners under various contractual arrangements. In its site development business, the company assists wireless service providers in developing and maintaining their own wireless service networks.

Weyerhaeuser Company

Weyerhaeuser is a real estate investment trust. The company's business segments are: Timberlands, which provides delivered logs (grade logs and fiber logs), timber, recreational leases and other products; Real Estate, Energy and Natural Resources (ENR), in which Real Estate sells timberland tracts for recreational, conservation, commercial or residential purposes, whereas ENR sells rights to explore, extract and sell construction aggregates (rock, sand and gravel), industrial materials and oil and natural gas; and Wood Products, which provides structural lumber, oriented strand board, wood products, other products, and complementary building products.

Whiting Petroleum Corporation

Whiting Petroleum is an independent oil and gas company engaged in development, production, acquisition, and exploration activities primarily in the Rocky Mountains region of the U.S. The company's existing operations and capital programs are focused on organic drilling activities and on the development of previously acquired properties, while selectively pursuing acquisitions that complement its existing properties. The company principally sells its oil and gas production to end users, marketers and other purchasers that have access to nearby pipeline or rail takeaway. In areas with no access to gathering pipelines, oil is trucked or transported to terminals, market hubs, refineries or storage facilities.

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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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