Company Reports

In September 2024, Jacobs Solutions completed the spinoff of its critical mission solutions and cyber and intelligence businesses. On Sept. 27, these businesses were spun off and merged with Amentum to form a new publicly traded company. Jacobs shareholders received one share of Amentum Holdings (trading on the NYSE under the ticker “AMTM”) for each share of Jacobs held on Sept. 23.

Interactive Brokers is a unique brokerage in our coverage. It serves a more niche client base. In addition to retail investors, the company caters to the trading of institutional clients like hedge and mutual funds, proprietary trading groups, introducing brokers, and financial advisors. The commission mix of retail and institutional clients is about 55%/45%. Most of Interactive Brokers' clients still choose to pay commissions, even though many other retail brokerages have switched to a zero-commission model for US stock trading. The clients of Interactive Brokers are more sophisticated than those of Charles Schwab and E-Trade. They trade more frequently, maintain higher cash balances to make opportunistic moves, and use more leverage. These trading-savvy customers are attracted by Interactive Brokers’ low margin rates, comprehensive trading platform, sophisticated trading execution capabilities, and high interest paid on idle cash.

BridgeBio Pharma is a biotechnology company focused on bridging the gap between genetic research and unmet patient needs. Its pipeline targets Mendelian disorders, precision oncology, and gene therapy, with four programs in late-stage development.

LPL Financial provides an advisory and brokerage platform for advisors, broker/dealer services for financial institutions, and resources for practice management. At the end of 2023, advisors on LPL's platform served over $1.3 trillion of wealth management assets in the United States. LPL aims to offer services to all advisors regardless of business model. For example, advisors can be licensed with LPL Financial, giving LPL responsibility for managing risk and compliance, or they can operate as a hybrid Registered Investment Advisor using LPL Financial for custody, trading, and administrative support. LPL has also launched a new employee model that allows advisors to fully outsource practice management.

Stellantis’ DARE 2030 strategy (launched 2022) has four key goals—become the most profitable automotive original equipment manufacturer globally, lead the industry on carbon neutrality by achieving such by 2038, accelerate the transition to electrification with a battery electric vehicle, or BEV, sales mix target of 100% in the EU and 50% in the US by 2030, and achieve first place on customer experience.

Qube's strategy is to consolidate the fragmented logistics chain surrounding the export and import of containers, bulk products, automobiles, and general cargo, to create a more efficient and cost-effective supply chain. The business has enjoyed some successes to date, though significant scope for industry consolidation remains.

Transurban is a major toll road investor with concessions to operate motorways in Australia and North American. Concessions grant the right to operate the roads and collect tolls for predetermined amounts of time. The core Australian roads are integral parts of the motorway networks in Australia's three largest cities: Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane. The roads benefit from strong competitive advantages, and the assets generate attractive returns on initial investment, warranting a wide economic moat rating.

As the largest retailer in Canada, Loblaw boasts well-recognized grocery and drugstore banners and a sizable loyalty program that drives strong consumer engagement. However, we think the firm has not carved out an economic moat based on either intangible assets or cost advantage, given its sales concentration in commoditized food retail, where low prices reign as the major point of differentiation.

Founded in 1980 via the acquisition of Airstream, Thor Industries has grown to become the world’s largest recreational vehicle manufacturer. The company fabricates and sells a wide array of vehicles through three segments: North American towables, North American motorized, and Europe. Additionally, the company sells aftermarket component parts and digital solutions that are classified within its other segment. During fiscal 2024, the company generated 37% of sales from North American towables, 24% of sales from North American motorized segment, 34% of sales from Europe, and the remaining from parts.

Lithium Argentina is a pure-play lithium producer with two assets in Argentina. The company was created as a result of the former Lithium Americas separation, which separated the firm's Argentina and North America businesses.

Eli Lilly's innovative culture and strong financial commitment to developing the next generation of drugs set the company apart from its peers and fuel its long-term growth. Lilly holds industry-leading growth potential as the company is launching several new blockbusters and patent losses are fading.

Pfizer's foundation remains solid, based on strong cash flows generated from a basket of diverse drugs. The company's large size confers significant competitive advantages in developing new drugs. This unmatched heft, combined with a broad portfolio of patent-protected drugs, has helped Pfizer build a wide economic moat around its business.

Merck's combination of a wide lineup of high-margin drugs and a pipeline of new drugs should ensure strong returns on invested capital over the long term. Further, following the divestment of the Organon business in June 2021, the remaining portfolio at Merck holds a higher percentage of drugs with strong patent protection. On the pipeline front, after several years of only moderate research and development productivity, Merck's drug development strategy is yielding important new drugs.

Adept at partnerships and acquisitions, Bristol-Myers Squibb has built a strong portfolio of drugs and a robust pipeline. This strategy is seen with its large acquisition of Celgene, which netted the firm an excellent pipeline and a strong entrenchment in blood cancer. More recent acquisitions in 2024—oncology firms Mirati and RayzeBio and neurology firm Karuna—also help support Bristol's strong overall pipeline and wide moat.

AbbVie holds a strong portfolio of marketed and pipeline drugs. While the increasing competition to the company's key drug Humira should slow the growth for the company in the near term, we believe the firm's remaining portfolio will mitigate these losses.

Johnson & Johnson stands alone as a leader across the major healthcare industries. It maintains a diverse revenue base, a developing research pipeline, and exceptional cash flow generation that together create a wide economic moat.

Ubisoft owns some of the best-known video game franchises, including Assassin’s Creed and the Tom Clancy series. We expect these core titles will provide opportunities to create new content that generates consistent revenue. However, increased investment in new game development over the past few years has delivered poor results, and execution around core titles has faltered. We still see room for financial results to improve, but we suspect the next year will be bumpy.

Kone is a global top-four elevator and escalator original equipment manufacturer. Its operations are integrated across manufacturing and installation activities, while also spanning E&E servicing for existing installations. Kone also performs elevator modernization services for elevator systems that have come to the end of their useful lives, which is typically 15-20 years. Active in all major geographies, Kone has an approximate 15% share of the estimated $80 billion global E&E market.

Japan Exchange Group’s strategy has long focused on various attempts to help revitalize the Japanese economy and financial markets. Over the past decade, this strategy took shape through various mergers and acquisitions, such as the merger between predecessor companies Tokyo Stock Exchange and Osaka Securities Exchange in 2013 and the acquisition of Tokyo Commodity Exchange in 2019. Through these mergers and acquisitions, the Japan Exchange Group has become a vertically integrated securities exchange business, with offerings across the full breadth and depth of exchanges and a dominant market share in listing, trading and clearing in Japan. JPX’s current strategy continues in a similar vein, with its medium-term management plan aiming to reinvigorate the Japanese economy and financial markets, primarily by focusing on supporting fundraising and asset formation.

New World Development is a leading property developer in Hong Kong and mainland China under the Cheng family, with property development and investment as core businesses. As NWD aims to raise the revenue mix of investment properties, we think execution efficiency remains crucial for the group to maintain robust top-line growth. We believe NWD is poised to leverage the success of its well-received K11 commercial project in Victoria Dockside to deliver the new 11 Skies project in Hong Kong. We also expect the group to complete a rich portfolio of K11 malls over the next five years in mainland China. With continuing floor area expansion and upward rental reversion, we estimate that recurring earnings from investment properties should represent over 30% of NWD’s operating profit in fiscal 2029.