Published: June 26, 2015
In a time of highly inflated valuations in the tech industry, Navi Hehar of Kerrisdale Capital Management found a particularly ripe short situation in 2014 via “action cam” producer GoPro (NYSE: GPRO). After its June 2014 IPO which made founder Nick Woodson an instant billionaire, GoPro stock wen...
Published: June 25, 2015
Groupon went public in late 2011 with hopes of revolutionizing the way consumers interacted with merchants. GRPN shares have since fallen over 75% and we believe they will fall further. A bad business model, lack of profit growth, and extreme competition put Groupon at risk.
Groupon’s Initial ...
Published: June 18, 2015
“Buy low, sell high” is the jokingly obvious motto of investors, but for Tom Fogarty, CFA (formerly at Dreman Value Management) it was “sell high, buy low” with his 2014 short position on Hertz (NYSE: HTZ). Fogarty noticed a variety of company events going on with Hertz, including a CEO with sket...
Published: June 11, 2015
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and Bradd Kern, Managing Director at Armored Wolf LLC, a hedge fund based in Newport Beach CA, sees something beautiful in cosmetics supergiant Revlon, Inc. (NYSE: REV).
Kern originally posted a long recommendation on Revlon to SumZero back in late 2013, a...
Published: June 05, 2015
SumZero asked Daniel Osowsky, long-time SumZero member and founder of Santa Monica based Osowsky Capital, to discuss his recent investment into retail giant Bed Bath and Beyond (BBBY:US).
Since Osowsky posted his long recommendation on SumZero in late 2014, the stock has appreciated a meaningf...
Published: May 29, 2015
The SumZero team is traveling to Hong Kong, Seoul, Sydney, and Singapore during the month of June to introduce the research platform to top, Asia-focused funds and to expand the community's membership base in the region. We are pleased to kick off a broader series of sector/region-specific resear...
Published: May 29, 2015
Buying an industry leader trading at trough valuation due to technology transition. Upside in the stock will be driven by a re-rate of its earnings multiple to a less steep discount relative to its tech sector peers, once its core business stabilizes and its growth initiatives start to take hold....
Published: May 22, 2015
Thesis
•There is a huge trend towards consolidation in the cable industry right now
•Investors are rewarding companies for transactions in the space
•CHTR has been rewarded handsomely for Bright House Networks acquisition, as well as recent growth
•But the company has not been able to generat...
Published: May 08, 2015
Pay TV programming generates 2/3 of the company profit with the remaining 1/3 is generated in film entertainment and television broadcasting. Key pay TV channels include Fox News, Fox Sports 1, FX, National Geographic, YES and many RSN. The company also holds around 40% stake in SKY, 50% stake in...
Published: April 23, 2015
UPDATE: Tuesday, 4/28/15
Spectator tickets are now sold out. However, presenters may still sign up by register as soon as possible. Co-Hosts SumZero, Upgrade Capital, and Pinebase invite you to join other presenters for a night of cocktails and quick-fire, stand...
Published: April 22, 2015
We are pleased to announce the Winners and Runners-Up for SumZero's 1st What Will Warren Buffett Buy Next Challenge. We sincerely thank everyone who participated in this year's inaugural event, including our esteemed Judges Panel, as well as our various prize partners, including ...
Published: April 17, 2015
Gazprom: hated but still a monopoly with high cash flow generation that stands up to stress test
“The state of entropy of the entire universe, as a closed isolated system, will always increase over time.” The Second Law of Thermodynamics
“Cheap natural gas from...
Published: April 15, 2014
We are pleased to announce the Winners, Runners-Up, and Honorable Mentions for the fourth and final leg of the FactSet Top Idea Tournament, the Large Cap contest. We would like to thank everyone who participated, including our esteemed Judges Panel, as well as our partner Fac...
Published: April 03, 2015
It has been 7 years since 2008 financial crisis, which left global banking system in ruins. Many asset classes have reached new highs since then, however banking sector remains undervalued.
Banks have historically linked Wall Street with Main Street. The relative performance of bank stocks, cu...
Published: March 27, 2015
Liberty Ventures (LVNTA) is a play on a high quality Liberty Media management team’s (John Malone, Greg Maffei) ability to source investment opportunities in the TMT space, monetize them in a highly tax-efficient manner, and create value through a positive NPV, tax-advantaged bond cash flow strea...
Published: March 13, 2015
The wireless space, in short, is very competitive, with low overall growth rates, and significant CapEx needs – upgrades to the system / spectrum purchases. Furthermore, over the past couple of years the industry has gone from effectively a dominant two player (T & VZ) market to a viable four pla...
Published: March 06, 2015
SumZero is thrilled to announce the launch of the 1st What Will Warren Buffett Buy Next Challenge. As Berkshire Hathaway celebrates its 50th anniversary under the leadership of Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, the Buffett Challenge will help build exci...
Published: February 19, 2015
Most beer industry experts believe that we are approaching the “last round” of major consolidation. The most attractive, sizeable growth asset in beer is SABMiller (“SAB”) given its deep ties into emerging markets and industry leading local beers.
Molson Coors (“TAP”) and SAB have co-operated ...
Published: January 06, 2015
SumZero's Best of 2014, an annual report highlighting selected ideas submitted to the SumZero platform over the 2014 calendar year, is now available via the link below. This report features 17 exceptional pieces of research chosen from a pool of nearly 1,500 reports uploaded to the SumZe...
Published: January 30, 2015
Oracle is a money machine that prints $1.2 billion in free cash flow per month. Oracle has an extremely valuable “razor and blades” business model, which is being substantially undervalued in its current share price. Investors are presently paying fair value for Oracle’s largest segment, “Softwar...
Published: January 22, 2015
As part of a broader mission to empower the fund professional, SumZero maintains an internal, user-driven compensation database. This database, which launched in 2012, now hosts over 2,600 unique compensation entries. The feature was designed to help verified buyside professionals understand more...
We are pleased to announce the Winners, Runners-Up, and Honorable Mentions for the third leg of the FactSet Top Idea Tournament, the Special Situations contest.
We would like to thank everyone who participated, including the judges panel, as well as our partner FactSet Systems...
Published: December 19, 2014
Karl Richter (Tectonic Investments) whose short recommendation on Kandi Technologies (KNDI:US) was a Finalist in our recent FactSet Best Short competition has provided the community with some timely updates on the pitch below. The stock is currently down 15% since his pitch and the recommendation...
Published: December 12, 2014
The third leg of the FactSet Top Idea Tournament, a SumZero research contest for buyside professionals, launches today, December 12th, with a special situations theme. Investment professional on the buyside are encouraged to enter their best ideas to grab their share of $160k in ...
Published: October 17, 2014
Dear Independent Board Members:
Engine Capital LP, together with its affiliates (“Engine”), and Red Alder LLC (“Red Alder”) collectively (“we”) own in excess of 1% of the outstanding shares of ANN, INC. (“ANN” or the “Company”). ANN represents a significant investment for Engine and Red Alder....
Published: October 10, 2014
We are pleased to announce the Winners, Runners-Up, and Honorable Mentions for the second leg of the FactSet Top Idea Tournament, the Best Short contest.
We would like to thank everyone who participated, including the judges panel, as well as our partner FactSet Systems for th...
Published: October 02, 2014
The winner of the FactSet Best Short contest will be announced on Friday, October 10th. As a warm-up to that announcement, we've posted this tremendous piece of short-focused research by Mohammed Saidal Mohmand (GrizzlyRock Capital). Given that the idea was less than $500mm in Market Cap, it was ...
Published: September 26, 2014
Tribune Publishing (TPUB) is trading at a substantial discount to fair value. TPUB is currently trading at $18.53. I believe fair value is between $28-37 per share.
The Opportunity:
TPUB was spun out of the Tribune Company with a separation date of August 4th. The when-issued shares began tr...
Published: September 12, 2014
Enrollment at U.S. institutions of higher education has seen tremendous growth over the past two decades and is projected to continue with strong growth for the foreseeable future. Enrollment figures grew by 11% in the 90’s and at a remarkable 37% from 2000 to 2010. By 2020, enrollment is expecte...
Published: September 04, 2014
URI Capital Partners opened in August of 2012. JP Morgan has been a large holding since the fund opened and continues to be a large holding today. JP Morgan has risen in price from around $37 at our initial purchase to over $55 today. This investment thesis is meant to recalibrate the relation of...
Published: August 29, 2014
Attached is a letter that our firm sent to the board and management of USA Truck. We believe the Company is grossly undervalued and if the Company operated at peer margins would yield EPS of 4.00-5.00 a share. At a peer group multiple that would yield share prices of 60-100 a share.
We recogni...
SumZero members Tice Brown (Snyder Brown Capital Management), Michael Kruger, CFA (MP&K Partners), and Michael Zapata (Sententia Capital Management) wish to highlight a situation risen from a recent tender offer made by HC2 Holding Company, controlled by Phil Falcone (previously of Harbinger Capi...
Published: August 22, 2014
The second leg of the FactSet Top Idea Tournament, a SumZero research contest for buyside professionals, launches on September 8th with Contest #2: Best Short. Members of the buyside community are encouraged to starting prepping their most compelling short-focused investment reco...
Published: August 15, 2014
We are frequently asked when we anticipate growing our research team; the implication being that the size of our team is a disadvantage and that adding people would improve investment results. Our general attitude towards hiring a full-time analyst can best be described as extreme reluctance base...
Published: August 08, 2014
In a world where energy and transportation fuel demand continues to rise, and where oil prices have hovered at an unprecedentedly high $100 per barrel price range for years, an observer might expect the oil majors to thrive. Their primary products are increasingly in demand, prices are sustainabl...
Published: August 01, 2014
Following a string of global catastrophes in 2011, many insurance executives predicted a looming hard market. At the time I was an individual investor that tracked dozens of insurance companies. I crunched the numbers, called my contacts, and came to the conclusion that purchasing reinsurers at l...
Terence Kawaja, founder and CEO of LUMA Partners recently released a slide presentation titled “The Future of Digital TV “. Business Insider describes the presentation as “epic” and notes Kawaja’s focus on digital media, expertise in the ad tech industry, and how well connected he is. That last p...
Published: July 17, 2014
Much has been made of Gotham City Research’s recent expose on Let’s Gowex (GOW:SM), a Spanish WiFi business that, by all accounts, appears to have been a complete fraud of a company. Since the piece was first published on Gotham’s site on July 1st, the company’s CEO admitted to at least some leve...
Published: July 11, 2014
After two weeks of rigorous vetting by our panel of top fund managers and asset allocators, we are pleased to announce the Winners of the first leg of the FactSet Top Idea Tournament, the Best International (Ex-US) contest. The Winners, Runners-Up, and Honorable Mentions emerge from a pool of ove...
Published: June 19, 2014
Liberty Global (LBTY) is a European cable provider that operates as one of the largest cable companies in the world with ~24.5 million customers and ~49 million subscribers as of March 31, 2014. Roughly 80% of its EBITDA is generated from its five core markets - the UK, Germany, Belgium, Switzerl...
The FactSet Top Idea Tournament, a SumZero research contest for buyside professionals, is now open for submissions. Contest #1 is: Best International (Ex-US) and members are encouraged to submit their best ideas on companies with at least USD$500mm in market cap, are domiciled ou...
Shares of San Francisco 49ers pro-bowl tight end Vernon Davis and his future earning potential are now available for public ownership through Fantex Brokerage Services (See ESPN’s Apri...
The FactSet Top Idea Tournament, a SumZero research contest for buyside professionals, kicks off on Monday, June 9th with Contest #1: Best International (Ex-US).
We have assembled a phenomenal panel of judges including fund managers like Scott Ferguson (Sachem Head), James Mon...
Published: May 29, 2014
The FactSet Top Idea Tournament, a SumZero research contest for buyside professionals, kicks off in about 10 days with Contest #1: Best International (Ex-US).
We have assembled a phenomenal panel of judges including fund managers like Scott Ferguson (Sachem Head), James Montie...
Published: May 20, 2014
iRobot (Nasdaq: IRBT) has seen its stock rise irrationally due to investor speculation of a “Robotics Revolution,” caused by media, analyst, and investor hype over small investments by companies such as Google (GOOG) and Amazon (AMZN) in robotics. In reality, we believe IRBT is a struggling consu...
Published: May 19, 2015
On May 6th, Forest Oil announced that it was merging with privately-held Sabine Oil and Gas, a company roughly three times the size of Forest. The new company will be called Sabine Oil and Gas and trade under the ticker SABO once the merger closes in Q4. Because this deal was announced in the mid...
POSCO is one of the frontrunners in the steel industry. Its numerous low cost advantages help it maintain that stature and enable it to grow and prosper. POSCO's stock is undervalued due to recent low profits caused by the escalation in raw materials costs coupled with the decline in steel prices...
Published: April 30, 2014
SumZero plays host to several thousand buyside funds that each have a unique strategy and perspective on the market. From time to time we enjoy highlighting selected funds and engaging them in dialogue for the benefit of all investors. Today we are pleased to present a Q&A with the heads of Two F...
Published: April 24, 2014
Family Dollar ("FDO") is experiencing deteriorating fundamentals due to a combination of a challenging macroeconomic backdrop for lower to middle income consumers and intense competition in the discount retailing segment.
At the macro level, weak employment and real income growth for lower and...
Published: April 16, 2014
Diamond Offshore (NYSE: DO) is an owner and operator of 41 offshore drilling rigs. Company's primary business is in providing drilling platforms to the offshore oil & gas industry, which is becoming ever growing part of the global oil production.
These platforms take up to three years to const...