Report
Valens Research

Valens Equity Insights and Inflections - 2019 11 19

LVS currently trades below corporate averages relative to UAFRS-based (Uniform) Earnings, with an 18.2x Uniform P/E. At these levels, the market is pricing in expectations for Uniform ROA to decline from 18% in 2018 to 16% in 2023, accompanied by immaterial Uniform Asset growth going forward. Meanwhile, analysts have similar expectations, projecting Uniform ROA to fall slightly to 17% levels through 2020, accompanied by 1% Uniform Asset growth. Meanwhile, management is confident about their resort growth, profitability, and Macao. Current valuations appear to be pricing in overly bearish expectations for LVS, and should they see profitability remain stable or expand, as recent profitability trends and positive management sentiment would suggest, material upside would be warranted.

EL Q4 2019 Embedded Expectations Analysis – Market expectations are for Uniform ROA expansion, but management may be concerned about growth, China, and travel retail.

RBC Q2 2019 Embedded Expectations Analysis – Market expectations are for Uniform ROA compression, but management is confident about productivity, margins, and inventory.

WM Q2 2019 Embedded Expectations Analysis – Market expectations are for Uniform ROA to improve, but management may be concerned about their free cash flow, acquisitions, and EBITDA.

LVS, EL, RBC, WM, CAT, COHR, DG, EQIX, GME, HD, JW.A, KMB, LOW, MD, NOW, NSIT, PUMP, SAFM, SLB, UTX
Underlyings
Caterpillar Inc.

Caterpillar is a manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives. The company segments include: Construction Industries, which supports customers using machinery in infrastructure, forestry and building construction; Resource Industries, which supports customers using machinery in mining, heavy construction, quarry and aggregates, waste and material handling applications; Energy and Transportation, which supports customers in oil and gas, power generation, marine, rail and industrial applications, including Cat? machines; and Financial Products, which provides financing and related services.

Coherent Inc.

Coherent is a provider of lasers, laser-based technologies and laser-based system solutions in a range of commercial, industrial and scientific applications. The company reporting segments are: OEM Laser Sources (OLS) and Industrial Lasers and Systems (ILS). The company's OLS business segment is focused on laser sources and optical sub-systems primarily used in microelectronics manufacturing, medical diagnostics and therapeutic medical applications, as well as in scientific research. The company's ILS business segment delivers laser sources, sub-systems and tools used for industrial laser materials processing, serving end markets like automotive, machine tool, consumer goods and medical device manufacturing.

Dollar General Corporation

Dollar General is a discount retailer. The company's consumables products includes paper and cleaning products, packaged food, perishables, snacks, health and beauty, pet, and tobacco products. The company's seasonal products include decorations, toys, batteries, small electronics, greeting cards, stationery, prepaid phones and accessories, gardening supplies, hardware, automotive and home office supplies. The company's home products include kitchen supplies, cookware, small appliances, light bulbs, storage containers, frames, candles, craft supplies and kitchen, bed and bath soft goods. The company's apparel includes casual everyday apparel, as well as socks, underwear, disposable diapers, shoes and accessories.

Equinix Inc.

Equinix provides colocation space and related offerings. The company operates International Business Exchange? (IBX?) data centers across the Americas; Europe, Middle East and Africa and Asia-Pacific geographic regions where customers directly interconnect with a network ecosystem of partners and customers. The company's data center solutions include IBX Data Centers and xScale Data Centers. The company's Interconnection Solution connect businesses within and between its data centers across its global platform. The company's edge services help businesses deploy as-a-service networking, security and hardware across its data center footprint, as an alternative to buying, owning and managing the physical infrastructure.

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.

GameStop Corp. Class A

GameStop is a multichannel video game and licensed consumer products retailer. The company's products and services includes: New Video Game Hardware, which provides video game platforms from manufacturers; New Video Game Software, which provides new video game software for existing and certain prior generation consoles from manufacturers, including Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft; Video Game Accessories, which consist primarily of controllers, gaming headsets, virtual reality products, and memory cards; and Digital, which sells a variety of digital currency and has developed technology to sell downloadable content and full-game downloads in its stores and on its U.S. website.

Home Depot Inc.

The Home Depot is a home improvement retailer. The company provides its customers an assortment of building materials, home improvement products, lawn and garden products, and decor products and provides a number of services, including home improvement installation services and tool and equipment rental. The company also maintains a network of distribution and fulfillment centers, as well as a number of e-commerce websites. The company provides a number of programs for its Professional Customers to meet their particular needs, and for its Do-It-Yourself and Do-It-For-Me customers, the company provides a number of installation services. The company also provides tool and equipment rentals for its customers.

Insight Enterprises Inc.

Insight Enterprises is a provider of digital technology, cloud/data center optimization, connected workforce, and supply chain optimization solutions and services. The company is organized in the following three operating segments, which are primarily defined by their related geographies: North America; Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA); and Asia-Pacific (APAC). The company's offerings in North America and certain countries in EMEA and APAC include a suite of information technology hardware, software and services solutions. The company's offerings in the remainder of its EMEA and APAC segments are primarily software and certain software-related services.

John Wiley & Sons Inc. Class A

John Wiley & Sons is a global research and learning company. Co. has three segments: Research segment, which provides scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly journals, as well as related content and services to libraries and individual researchers, among others; Publishing, which provides scientific, professional, and education books and related content in print and digital formats, test preparation services and course workflow tools, to libraries, corporations, students, professionals, and researchers; and Solutions, which provides online program management services for higher education institutions and learning, development, and assessment services for businesses and professionals.

Kimberly-Clark Corporation

Kimberly-Clark is principally engaged in the manufacturing and marketing of a range of products primarily made from natural or synthetic fibers using technologies in fibers, nonwovens and absorbency. The company is organized into three operating segments: Personal Care, which provides solutions and products such as disposable diapers, training and youth pants, swimpants, baby wipes, feminine and incontinence care products, and other related products; Consumer Tissue, which provides facial and bathroom tissue, paper towels, napkins and related products; and K-C Professional, which provides a range of solutions and supporting products such as wipers, tissue, towels, apparel, soaps and sanitizers.

Las Vegas Sands Corp.

Las Vegas Sands is a developer of destination properties (Integrated Resorts) that feature accommodations, gaming, entertainment and retail malls, convention and exhibition facilities, restaurants and other amenities. The company owns and operates Integrated Resorts in Asia and the United States. Through its ownership of Sands China Ltd., the company owns and operates properties including The Venetian Macao Resort Hotel, Sands Cotai Central, The Parisian Macao, The Plaza Macao and Four Seasons Hotel Macao, Cotai Strip, and the Sands Macao. In Singapore, the company owns and operates the Marina Bay Sands. The company's Las Vegas Operating Properties includes The Venetian Resort Las Vegas and the Sands Expo Center.

Lowe's Companies Inc.

Lowe's Companies is a home improvement retailer. The company provides home improvement products in lumber and building materials, appliances, seasonal and outdoor living, tools and hardware, fashion fixtures, rough plumbing and electrical, paint, millwork, lawn and garden, flooring, and kitchens categories. The company provides installation services through independent contractors in product categories, including appliances, flooring, kitchens, lumber and building materials, and millwork. The company also provides extended protection plans for various products within the appliances, kitchens, fashion fixtures, millwork, rough plumbing and electrical, seasonal and outdoor living, and tools and hardware categories.

MEDNAX Inc.

MEDNAX provides physician services including newborn, anesthesia, maternal-fetal, radiology and teleradiology, pediatric cardiology and other pediatric subspecialty care. The company's network comprised of physicians, including physicians who provide neonatal clinical care, primarily within hospital-based neonatal intensive care units, to babies born prematurely or with medical complications. The company also provides radiology services and teleradiology services. In addition to its national physician network, the company provides services to healthcare facilities and physicians, including the company's, through complementary businesses, consisting of a management services organization and a consulting services company.

ProPetro Holding Corp.

ProPetro Holding is a holding company. Through its subsidiary, the company is engaged as an oilfield services company providing hydraulic fracturing and other services to upstream oil and gas companies engaged in the exploration and production of North American unconventional oil and natural gas resources. The company's operations are primarily focused in the Permian Basin. In addition to its core hydraulic fracturing operations, the company provides complementary well completion and production services, including cementing, coiled tubing, flowback services and drilling. The company conducts its business through five segments: hydraulic fracturing (inclusive of acidizing), cementing, coil tubing, flowback and drilling.

Raytheon Technologies Corporation

United Technologies provides technology products and services to the building systems and aerospace industries. The company has four segments: Otis, which designs, manufactures, sells and installs passenger and freight elevators; Carrier, which provides heating, ventilating, air conditioning refrigeration, fire, security and building automation products; Pratt & Whitney, which supplies aircraft engines for the commercial, military, business jet and general aviation market; and Collins Aerospace Systems, which provides aerospace products and aftermarket service solutions for aircraft manufacturers, airlines, regional, business and general aviation markets, military, space and undersea operations.

Regal Beloit Corp

Regal Beloit is a manufacturer of electric motors, electrical motion controls, power generation and power transmission products. The company is comprised of four operating segments: Commercial Systems, which produces AC and DC motors, electronic variable speed controls, fans, and blowers for commercial applications; Industrial Systems, which produces motors, generators, alternators and switchgear for industrial applications, along with aftermarket parts and kits to support such products; Climate Solutions, which produces small motors, electronic variable speed controls and air moving solutions; and Power Transmission Solutions, which produces, sells and services belt and chain drives.

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.

Schlumberger NV

Schlumberger provides technology for reservoir characterization, drilling, production and processing to the oil and gas industry. The company has four segments: Reservoir Characterization, which consists of the principal technologies involved in finding and defining hydrocarbon resources; Drilling, which consists of the principal technologies involved in the drilling and positioning of oil and gas wells; Production, which consists of the principal technologies involved in the lifetime production of oil and gas reservoirs; and Cameron, which consists of the principal technologies involved in pressure and flow control for drilling and intervention rigs, oil and gas wells and production facilities.

ServiceNow Inc.

ServiceNow provides enterprise cloud computing services that define, structure, manage and automate digital workflows for global enterprises. The company markets its services to enterprises in a variety of industries, including consumer products, education, financial services, government, health care, information technology (IT) services and technology. The company sells its subscription services through direct sales and, to a lesser extent, through indirect channel sales. The company also provides a portfolio of personnel and other services, both directly and through its network of partners. The company's products include IT service management, IT operations management, IT business management, and security operations.

Waste Management Inc.

Waste Management is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the company is a provider of waste management environmental services. The company partners with its residential, commercial, industrial and municipal customers and the communities it serves to manage and reduce waste at each stage from collection to disposal, while recovering resources and creating renewable energy. The company's Solid Waste business is operated and managed by its subsidiaries that focus on various geographic areas and provide collection, transfer, disposal, and recycling and resource recovery services. Through its subsidiaries, the company is also a developer, operator and owner of landfill gas-to-energy 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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