Report
Valens Research

BID - Embedded Expectations Analysis - 2018 08 27

Sotheby's (BID:USA) currently trades below corporate averages relative to UAFRS-based (Uniform) Earnings, with a 16.4x UAFRS-based P/E, implying bearish expectations for the firm. However, management is confident in their new digital marketing strategies and improved balance sheet

Specifically, management is confident that their new marketing strategy, shifting from analog and paper-based sources to digital and smart platforms, will drive better commerce. Additionally, they are confident in their recent reduction of inventory on their balance sheet, specifically bad inventory attributable to failures in the auction room. Finally, they are confident in their ability to increase cost savings through re-evaluating their employee headcount
Underlying
Sotheby's

Sotheby's is a global art business whose operations are organized under two segments: Agency and Finance. The Agency segment matches buyers and sellers of authenticated fine art, decorative art, jewelry, wine and collectibles (collectively, art or works of art or artwork or property) through the auction or private sale process. Agency segment activities also include the sale of artworks that are principally acquired incidental to the auction process and the activities of RM Sotheby's, an equity investee that operates as an auction house for investment-quality automobiles. The Finance segment provides art-related financing activities by making loans that are secured by works of art.

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
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  • 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.

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Valens Research

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