A few takeaways from the Morgan Stanley 7th Annual Swiss Watch report:
Polarization continued the Big 4 (Rolex, Patek, AP and Richard Mille) gaining share (+200 bps) and capturing 44% of the market (vs 36.9% in 2019)
Rolex became the first Swiss watch brand to surpass CHF 10bn with 30% estimated market share
"No other luxury brand can claim such a dominant position in its respective sector. For example, Louis Vuitton had a market share of 'only' ~19% in the luxury handbag market last year."
Richemont $CFRUY mixed bag: 3 brands gained share (Vacheron, A Lange & Sohne, Van Cleef) but IWC sales declined ~13%, believed to be a consequence of aggressive pricing (eg new Ingenieur costs ~12K) with brands like Omega offering similar/better value for a lower price
$BRK released its First Quarter earnings on Saturday.
As usual, all the juice is in the 10-Q. Here are some highlights:
Operating earnings (defined by $BRK) were up 13%
Adjusting for certain items (amortization, FX, one time items, acquisitions) operating earnings increased 21%
Most of the strength is attributable to insurance, with underwriting profits up >5x and investment income +68% given higher interest rates.
BNSF and BHE earnings were both down 9%
The industrial and services group saw strength, while consumer and building products were weak
Total revenues increased 7%
Excluding the impact of acquisitions (Alleghany and Pilot) +3%
Accounting for FX headwinds "organic" revenue was probably 4-5%
Interesting recent VIC Writeup on $NTDOY by 08ird (short summary):
"Nintendo has already expanded its operating margin from ~4% in FY15 to ~35% today. Incredibly, its stock has hardly seen any multiple expansion, despite numerous value-unlocking events that have happened."
"Our first, and most critical assumption, is that the Nintendo Switch should be viewed as an “App Store Platform” that is in the midst of a secular growth of digital purchases. More than half the number of games sold on the Nintendo Switch are from third-party publishers."
"Our second key assumption is that the Switch will enter a new transformational growth phase (likely in 2023) on the back of hardware advancements. The new device likely uses the newer and more powerful Tegra239 system on a chip that could support PS4, level graphics"
$CSU.TO Announces Formation of Venture Capital Fund
-Invest in businesses that have the potential to become standalone business units within CSI
-Objective is to develop organic growth processes which can eventually be rolled out more broadly by CSI
“Organic growth will be a critically important part of CSI's enduring success. TOG has one of the best track records of sustained organic growth at scale that I’ve seen in the VMS industry” –Mark Leonard