Company Reports

EVgo is a leading owner-operator of fast-charging direct current stations in the United States.

Carnival remains the largest company in the cruise industry, with nine global brands and 92 ships at the end of fiscal 2023. The global cruise market has historically been underpenetrated, offering cruise companies a long-term demand opportunity. Additionally, the ability to reposition and redeploy ships to faster-growing and underrepresented regions like Asia-Pacific had helped balance the supply in high-capacity regions like the Caribbean and Mediterranean before the pandemic, a factor that the firm can again choose to utilize to help optimize forward pricing. Although European demand and occupancy is converging on normalized levels, we believe there is still support for improving economic performance at Carnival.

Carnival remains the largest company in the cruise industry, with nine global brands and 92 ships at the end of fiscal 2023. The global cruise market has historically been underpenetrated, offering cruise companies a long-term demand opportunity. Additionally, the ability to reposition and redeploy ships to faster-growing and underrepresented regions like Asia-Pacific helped balance the supply in high-capacity regions like the Caribbean and Mediterranean prior to the pandemic, a factor that the firm can again choose to utilize to help optimize forward pricing. Although the European demand and occupancy profiles are converging on normalized levels, we believe there is still support for improving economic performance at Carnival.

Liberty targets a broader customer base compared with conventional banks, including nonconforming borrowers who cannot meet the traditional standard lending criteria of Authorized Deposit-Taking Institutions, or ADIs. To compensate for the additional risks, either because of the loan type or borrower profile, Liberty charges higher interest rates.

Roblox operates an online video game platform that lets gamers create, develop, and monetize games for other players. The firm offers developers a hybrid of a game engine, publishing platform, online hosting and services, marketplace with payment processing, and social network. Roblox is highly accessible as there is no entry cost to try out Roblox or the vast majority of user-developed games. Thus, to drive booking growth and keep the Roblox model churning along, the new user must purchase and spend Robux, the platform’s tender.

Founded in 1956, Fair Isaac Corporation, or FICO, established itself as the industry leader in credit scores, which turned out to be a very lucrative business. Credit scores are used for more than just individual lending decisions; they are benchmarks used by investors, lenders, and the industry overall.

We view Nike as the leader of the athletic apparel market and believe it will recover from its recent problems, such as a lack of product innovation, soft demand for sportswear, and a CEO change. Our wide moat rating is based on its intangible brand asset, as we believe it will maintain premium pricing and generate economic profits for at least 20 years. Nike, the largest athletic footwear brand in all major categories and in most markets, dominates areas like running and basketball with popular shoe styles. While it does face significant competition, we believe it has proven over a long period that it can maintain share and pricing.

BeiGene is an emerging Chinese biotechnology company with a global leading position in hematologic cancers thanks to its core drug Brukinsa. Since its approval in 2019, Brukinsa’s stronger efficacy and superior safety profile have allowed BeiGene to gain market share from existing drugs. In the next five years, we expect Brukinsa to continue contributing more than 50% of BeiGene’s total revenue.

Population growth and economic growth in Arizona have helped Pinnacle West ride through a turbulent couple of years dealing with state regulators. Some of those regulatory setbacks have reversed and Pinnacle West could be on the verge of another long run of attractive earnings growth and dividend increases.

As the majority shareholder of Canada’s largest retailer Loblaw as well as leading real estate investment trust Choice Properties, George Weston capitalizes on resilient consumer demand for groceries and pharmacy services, and benefits from synergies between the two operating subsidiaries. We view its financial performance as anchored by steady dividends from the retail and property arms, but don’t think the firm has a durable competitive edge based on our no-moat rating on Loblaw, which makes up the bulk of revenue and profits for the holding company.

Telenor is the incumbent telecom operator in Norway and operates in Nordic and Asian countries. Its business is mature and growing slowly with high reliance on mobile operations, but it generates significant free cash flow and has increased dividends nicely in recent years. Telenor expanded into emerging markets earlier than many European telecom operators.

Lam Research is one of the largest providers of wafer fabrication equipment for semiconductors, and we believe its strong portfolio, particularly for memory chip production, should enable it to maintain and increase its large market share. In our view, Lam will benefit from increasing chip complexity over the long term, including progress toward higher memory chip density and high-bandwidth memory. We expect Lam to increase sales in the midsingle digits over the course of market cycles and over the long term.

Tesco, the largest grocery retailer in the United Kingdom in terms of sales and store network, has successfully completed an ambitious turnaround. It has had one of the worst times in its history over the past decade, including an accounting controversy in 2014 and a subsequent decline in profits and growth owing to the advent of discounters in the UK food retail business.

Lamb Weston offers investors pure-play exposure to the frozen potato market as North America’s largest producer (more than 40% share), followed by McCain (30%), Simplot (20%), and Cavendish (7%-8%) though it trails McCain globally. The firm primarily sells French fries to restaurants. Despite its niche focus, we view frozen potatoes as boasting robust demand growth.

Tesla is one of the largest battery electric vehicle automakers in the world. In less than a decade, the company went from a startup to a globally recognized luxury automaker with its Model S and Model X vehicles. The company competes in the entry-level luxury car and midsize crossover sport utility vehicle markets with its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles. Tesla also sells a light truck—the Cybertruck, and a semi truck. The company plans to launch an affordable SUV and luxury sports car in the future.

Zions Bancorporation is one of the smaller regional banks that we cover. It is primarily a commercial bank focused on small to midsize businesses in the western half of the United States, where on-the-ground relationships are key. Although Zions struggled during the financial crisis, it has made meaningful improvements to its credit risk management and operational efficiency. We think the main determinants of the bank’s future success will be the interest-rate environment, the stability of the deposit base, and the ability to maintain and improve operational efficiency.

Regions Financial is a midsize U.S. regional bank, primarily concentrated in the Southeast. After the disastrous acquisition of AmSouth before the global financial crisis, Regions has stabilized its core operations and turned into a solid regional bank. It has shied away from dramatic acquisitions since and has improved its risk-management and underwriting capabilities, becoming a safer bank in the process. Regions also boasts one of the more advantaged deposit bases under our coverage, with lower costs leading to extra profitability. The bank's focus on improving operational efficiency and building out fee-generating businesses has also improved its profitability profile, as the firm has managed to keep its expense growth to a minimal level for years now while also increasing fees.

M&T Bank is a midsize regional bank with operations throughout the Northeastern United States. The bank has a valuable commercial real estate franchise, with much of the rest of its business comprising other commercial-focused (as opposed to retail-focused) operations, although the bank does have retail operations. M&T has a history of good management, good underwriting, and deep on-the-ground relationships. The bank is a solid regional operator.

Fifth Third is a midsize regional bank, primarily concentrated in the Midwest. The bank has a mix of commercial and retail banking offerings, as well as a healthy mix of corporate banking/capital markets, wealth, and payments fees.

Gallagher is somewhat of a tollbooth business. The company enjoys sticky customer relationships and its revenue is driven by insurance transactions, which are stable as most insurance purchases are non-discretionary. Since its fees are often set as a percentage of premium levels, it does have some exposure to the insurance pricing cycle, but revenue for the business is still fairly steady. The company’s cost structure is flexible, and capital needs are minimal. The net result is relatively healthy and stable free cash flow.