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Valens Research

Valens Equity Insights and Inflections - 2021 03 02

Current market expectations for II-VI Incorporated (IIVI) don't comprehend the company's
macro tailwinds. Markets expect UAFRS-based (Uniform) ROA (ROA') to fall back towards
historical trough levels, even as analysts are forecasting significant ROA' recovery, in line with the tailwinds from its exposure to 5G investment, the Internet of Things, and autonomous vehicle investment.

The company supplies the technology that allows these big macro tailwinds to continue to take off, and in the case of autonomous vehicles, are essential to any success at all. As booming demand accelerates in these end markets, the company's likely to see strong fundamental momentum the market isn't pricing in, both in terms of growth and profitability.
Management alignment points to reasons to believe the company can sustain strong returns and grow smartly. Management is compensated to focus on growth, margins, and asset efficiency when investing. Also, management has shown confidence about big synergies savings from its acquisitions, booming demand, and its competitive moats.
Low market expectations, positive tailwinds, strong management alignment and execution,
and management's confidence about their outlook point to reason for upside.

MCD Q4 2020 Embedded Expectations Analysis – Market expectations are for record-high Uniform ROA, but management may be concerned about market share, their international business, and franchisees

MNST Q3 2020 Embedded Expectations Analysis – Market expectations are for record-high Uniform ROA, but management may be concerned about growth, market share, and inventory

FDX Q2 2021 Embedded Expectations Analysis – Market expectations are for Uniform ROA to recover, but management may have concerns about capacity, their capex strategy, and SmartPost

IIVI, FDX, MCD, MNST, BLL, DIS, GIS, IBM, KMI, MCHP, MKSI, PG, PPG, RAD, SAFM, SMSI, TTC, URI, WDC, WLK, ZBH
Underlyings
Ball Corporation

Ball supplies metal packaging to the beverage, personal care and household products industries. The company provides aerospace and other technologies and services. The company's main product line is aluminum beverage containers. The company also produces aerosol containers, extruded aluminum aerosol containers and aluminum slugs. The company's segments are: beverage packaging, North and Central America, beverage packaging, South America, and beverage packaging, Europe, all of which are engaged in manufacturing and selling aluminum beverage containers; and aerospace, which manufactures and sells aerospace and other related products and provides services used in the defense, civil space and commercial space industries.

FedEx Corporation

FedEx provides transportation, e-commerce and business services through companies under the FedEx brand. These companies are included in the following segments: Federal Express Corporation, including TNT Express B.V., is an express transportation company; FedEx Ground Package System, Inc., which is a provider of small-package ground delivery services; FedEx Freight Corporation, which is a provider of less-than-truckload freight services; and FedEx Corporate Services, Inc., which provides sales, marketing, information technology, communications, customer service, technical support, billing and collections services, and certain back-office functions.

General Mills Inc.

General Mills manufactures and markets branded consumer foods. The company's segments are: North America Retail, which provides cereals, refrigerated yogurt, soup, meal kits, dessert and baking mixes, frozen pizza and pizza snacks, grain, fruit and savory snacks, and organic products, among others; Convenience Stores and Foodservice, which provides snacks, yogurt, frozen meals and frozen dough products, and baking mixes, among others; Europe and Australia, which includes retail and foodservice businesses in the Europe and Australia region; Asia and Latin America, which consists of retail and foodservice businesses in the Asia and South America regions; and Pets, which includes pet food products.

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.

International Business Machines Corporation

International Business Machines provides integrated solutions and products that utilize data, information technology, capability in industries and business processes. The company has five segments: Cloud and Cognitive Software, which provides a range of software offerings; Global Business Services, which provides consulting, systems integration, application management and business process outsourcing services; Global Technology Services, which provides project services, managed and outsourcing services, cloud-delivered services, and technical and IT support services; Systems, which provides technology and service; and Global Financing, which provides client financing, among others.

Kinder Morgan Inc Class P

Kinder Morgan is an energy infrastructure company. The company's segments are: Natural Gas Pipelines, which includes the ownership and operation of, among others, main interstate and intrastate natural gas pipeline and storage systems; Products Pipelines, which includes the refined petroleum products, crude oil and condensate pipelines; Terminals, which includes the ownership and/or operation of, among others, liquids and bulk terminal facilities; and carbon dioxide (CO2), which includes the production, transportation and marketing of CO2, ownership interests in and/or operation of oil fields and gasoline processing plants in West Texas.

McDonald's Corporation

McDonald's franchises and operates McDonald's restaurants. The company's menu includes hamburgers and cheeseburgers, Big Mac, Quarter Pounder with Cheese, Filet-O-Fish, several chicken sandwiches, Chicken McNuggets, wraps, fries, shakes, McFlurry desserts, sundaes, soft serve cones, pies, soft drinks, coffee, McCafe beverages and other beverages. The company's restaurants in the United States and various international markets provide a full or limited breakfast menu. Breakfast offerings may include Egg McMuffin, Sausage McMuffin with Egg, McGriddles, biscuit and bagel sandwiches and hotcakes. The restaurants also sells a variety of other products during limited-time promotions

Microchip Technology Incorporated

Microchip Technology develops, manufactures and sells semiconductor products. The company's product portfolio comprises general purpose and other eight-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit microcontrollers, 32-bit microprocessors, field-programmable gate array products, a range of linear, mixed-signal, power management, thermal management, discrete diodes, Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors, radio frequency, timing, timing systems, safety, security, wired connectivity and wireless connectivity devices, serial Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory, Serial Flash memories, Parallel Flash memories, Serial Electrically Erasable Random Access Memory and serial Static Random Access Memory.

MKS Instruments Inc.

MKS Instruments is a provider of instruments, subsystems and process control solutions. The company has two segments: Vacuum & Analysis, which provides instruments, components, subsystems and software which are derived from its knowledge in pressure measurement and control, flow measurement and control, gas and vapor delivery, gas composition analysis, residual gas analysis, leak detection, control and information technology, ozone generation and delivery, radio frequency and data communication power, reactive gas generation and vacuum technology; and Light & Motion, which provides instruments, components and subsystems which are derived from its knowledge in lasers, photonics and optics.

Monster Beverage Corporation

Monster Beverage is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the company develops, markets, sells and distributes energy drink beverages and concentrates for energy drink beverages. The company has the following operating and reportable segments: Monster Energy? Drinks segment, which is primarily comprised of the company's Monster Energy? drinks and Reign Total Body Fuel? energy drinks; Strategic Brands segment, which is comprised primarily of the various energy drink brands from The Coca-Cola Company, as well as its energy drinks; and Other segment, which is comprised of certain prod ucts sold by American Fruits and Flavors, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary, to independent third-party customers.

PPG Industries Inc.

PPG Industries manufactures and distributes a range of paints, coatings and specialty materials. The company's business is comprised of two reportable business segments: Performance Coatings, which primarily supplies a variety of protective and decorative coatings, sealants and finishes along with paint strippers, stains and related chemicals, as well as transparencies and transparent armor; and Industrial Coatings, which primarily supplies a variety of protective and decorative coatings and finishes along with adhesives, sealants, metal pretreatment products, optical monomers and coatings, precipitated silicas and other specialty materials.

Procter & Gamble Company

Procter & Gamble provides consumer packaged goods. The company's products are sold primarily through mass merchandisers, e-commerce, grocery stores, membership club stores, drug stores, department stores, distributors, wholesalers, baby stores, beauty stores, other stores and pharmacies. The company has five reportable segments: Beauty, which includes hair care, and skin and personal care products; Grooming, which includes shave care products; Health Care, which includes oral care and personal health care products; Fabric and Home Care, which includes fabric care and home care products; and Baby, Feminine and Family Care, which includes baby care, feminine care and family care products.

Rite Aid Corporation

Rite Aid is a pharmacy retail healthcare company. The company's Retail Pharmacy segment sells brand and generic prescription drugs, as well as an assortment of front-end products including health and beauty aids, personal care products, seasonal merchandise, and a private brand product line. The company's Pharmacy Services segment provides pharmacy benefit management (PBM) options through its EnvisionRxOptions and MedTrak PBMs, respectively. EnvisionRxOptions also provides mail-order and specialty pharmacy services through EnvisionPharmacies; a claims adjudication software platform in Laker Software; and a national Medicare Part D prescription drug plan through its EnvisionRx Plus product offering.

Sanderson Farms Inc.

Sanderson Farms is a poultry processing company engaged in the production, processing, marketing and distribution of frozen chicken products, including processed and minimally prepared chicken. The company sells ice-packed, chill-packed, bulk-packed and frozen chicken, in whole, cut-up and boneless form to retailers, distributors, and casual dining operators, and to customers who resell frozen chicken into export markets. The company operates through: Sanderson Farms, Inc. (Production Division), which is engaged in the production of chickens to the broiler stage; and Sanderson Farms, Inc. (Processing Division), which is engaged in the processing, sale and distribution of chicken products.

Smith Micro Software Inc.

Smith Micro Software develops software and provides solutions to wireless service providers and cable multiple service operators. The company's portfolio also includes a range of products for creating, sharing and monetizing content, such as visual messaging, optimizing retail content display, analytics capabilities, and 2D/3D graphics applications. The company's business is focused on two industry segments: Wireless, which includes its NetWise?, CommSuite?, and SafePath? family of products; and Graphics, which includes its consumer-based products: Poser?, Moho?, MotionArtist?, Rebelle, PhotoDonut and StuffIt?.

Toro Company

Toro designs, manufactures, and markets turf maintenance equipment and services, turf irrigation systems, landscaping equipment and lighting products, snow and ice management products, agricultural irrigation systems, rental and underground construction equipment, and residential yard and snow thrower products. The company's segments include: Professional, which markets its products worldwide through a network of distributors and dealers, as well as directly to government customers, rental companies, and retailers; and Residential, which markets its products to homeowners through outdoor power equipment distributors and dealers, mass retailers, hardware retailers, home centers, as well as online.

United Rentals Inc.

United Rentals is an equipment rental company that operates throughout the United States and Canada, and Europe. The company's general rentals segment includes the rental of construction, aerial and industrial equipment, general tools and light equipment, and related services and activities. This segment's customers include construction and industrial companies, manufacturers, utilities, municipalities and homeowners. The company's trench, power and fluid solutions segment includes the rental of construction products and related services. This segment consist of: Trench Safety region, Power and Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning region; and Fluid Solutions and Fluid Solutions Europe regions.

Walt Disney Company

Walt Disney is an entertainment company. The company's segments are: Media Networks, which includes domestic cable networks, broadcast television network and domestic television stations, and television production and distribution; Parks, Experiences and Products, which includes theme parks and resorts, and consumer products operations; Studio Entertainment, which includes motion picture production and distribution, music production and distribution, and post-production services; and Direct-to-Consumer and International, which includes international television networks and channels, direct-to-consumer streaming services, and other digital content distribution platforms and services.

Western Digital Corporation

Western Digital is a developer, manufacturer, and provider of data storage devices and solutions. The company's portfolio of technology and products address the following markets: Client Devices, which consist of hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid state drives (SSDs) for computing devices, flash-based embedded storage products, and flash-based memory wafers and components; Data Center Devices and Solutions, which consist of enterprise HDDs and enterprise SSDs, data center software and system solutions; and Client Solutions, which consist of HDDs and SSDs embedded into external storage products and removable flash-based products, such as cards, universal serial bus flash drives and wireless drives.

Westlake Chemical Corporation

Westlake Chemical operates as a manufacturer and marketer of basic chemicals, vinyls, polymers and building products. The company operates in two operating segments: Olefins, which manufactures and markets polyethylene, styrene monomer and various ethylene co-products; and Vinyls, which manufactures and markets polyvinyl chloride (PVC), vinyl chloride monomer, ethylene dichloride, chlor-alkali (chlorine and caustic soda), chlorinated derivative products and ethylene, as well as manufactures and sells building products fabricated from PVC, including residential siding, trim and mouldings, pipe and fittings for various water, sewer and industrial applications, and profiles for windows and doors.

ZIMMER BIOMET HOLDINGS INC.

Zimmer Biomet Holdings is engaged in musculoskeletal healthcare. The company's products are: Knees, which includes knee replacement surgeries; Hips, which includes hip replacement surgeries; S.E.T., which includes surgical, sports medicine, biologics, foot and ankle, extremities and trauma products; Spine and Craniomaxillofacial and Thoracic, which designs, manufactures and distributes medical devices and surgical instruments, as well as provides face and skull reconstruction products; Dental, which manufactures and/or distributes dental reconstructive implants, dental prosthetic products and dental regenerative products; and Other, which includes bone cement and office based technology products.

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