Research Vault

  • All Initiation Reports have the price at initiation and upside potential listed
  • Bias towards small and mid capitalizations; sector agnostic; about 90% U.S. & 10% Foreign names
  • Each "Open" position will be sized between 5%-15% in the Pernas Portfolio
  • All closed positions will have the performance result listed
  • About 40% of Pernas Research's Initiation Reports receive a "neutral" rating. Read about why we publish neutrals here

(PAR:SESL) SES Imagotag: The Dominant Player Digitizing Retailers

The global retail sector is gargantuan, with about $30 Trillion in sales, the US makes up about 15% of this. The retail sector has been facing both revenue and margin compression as it is squeezed by rapidly growing e-commerce players. The future looks bleak unless the retail experience fundamentally changes. The digitization of retailers is looking to be the solution. It has the potential to increase revenues and margins for retailers while bettering the customer experience, a win-win. As this industry evolves, there will be a blurring between the retail…

    • Initiation Price: €48.95
    • Upside: 100%
    • Current Status: Closed
    • Result: +185%

(NAS:ITI) Iteris: A Niche Within A Niche

Iteris is a transportation company that is a vertically integrated provider of hardware, software, and consulting services to the signalized intersection industry. They have their hardware in nearly thirty percent of the signalized intersections in the USA and process petabytes of traffic data per day. ITI is leveraging its hardware footprint and long-term adviser relationships with thousands of municipal agencies to upsell its innovative SAAS offerings. ITI has recently positioned itself as a pure-play transportation company and is well poised to ride the USA’s needed infrastructure upgrade and the coming…

    • Initiation Price: $6.37
    • Upside: 70%
    • Current Status: No Position
    • Result: -14%

Channel Advisor ::UPDATE:: CLOSED

We sold ECOM for a gain of 22%. Our thesis was that channel managers would continue to be prevalent for retailers and DTC brands as it was in their interest to spread a “fishing net” as wide as possible. We believed the e-commerce trend had been accelerated due to COVID and as the leading channel manager, Channel Advisor would stand to benefit. However, recent data suggests that e-commerce has not accelerated ten years into the future, but instead only 1-2 years. Along with Shopify becoming a more existential threat and…

    • Current Status: Closed
    • Result: +22%

(NAS:AOUT) American Outdoor Brands: An Undervalued Spinoff

American Outdoor Brands spun off from Smith and Wesson in July of 2020. AOUT is composed of both outdoor and gun accessory brands. Due to COVID and the subsequently accelerated affinity for outdoor activities, about half of AOUT’s brands have experienced triple-digit growth yoy. Given AOUT’s strong brands and their success in e-commerce and DTC, we believe AOUT is in a terrific position to take advantage of the record number of hunters and campers that have recently entered the market. Background AOUT is composed of an assortment of brands that…

    • Initiation Price: $19.4
    • Upside: 70%
    • Current Status: Closed
    • Result: -50%

(NAS:ECOM) ChannelAdvisor: The De Facto Channel Manager

Due to COVID, the e-commerce environment has accelerated about ten years into the future. We believe that with the reduced churn rate and more relevant offerings, ChannelAdvisor (ECOM) is poised to take advantage of the more competitive e-commerce environment. Background ChannelAdvisor is a market-leading channel manager that enables brands and retailers to integrate, manage and optimize their merchandise sales across a hundred plus online channels including Amazon, Etsy, Shopify, Google, eBay, Walmart, Facebook, and many more. ECOM offers solutions such as marketplace integration, analytics, digital marketing, inventory management, and drop…

    • Initiation Price: $18.57
    • Upside: 60%
    • Current Status: Closed
    • Result: +22%

(NAS:FREE) Whole Earth: A Sweet Company To Buy

Whole Earth (NASDAQ:FREE) is a consumer package company with multiple market-leading brands trading at around 10x 2021 earnings. Given its dominance in the artificial sweetener and licorice industries along with a rapidly growing natural sweetener segment, we believe FREE has a 50 to 100 percent upside from here. Background Whole Earth became public via the ACT II SPAC in June 2020. This acquisition bought two subsidiaries – Merisant and MAFCO – from Ron Perelman’s conglomerate into the public light. Under the conglomerate, these two companies languished in obscurity and funneled…

    • Initiation Price: $11.47
    • Upside: 50%
    • Current Status: Closed
    • Result: -30%

(NYSE:LEU) Centrus Energy: A Low Risk High Reward Play On Uranium

Centrus is a compelling risk-reward play on the future of US uranium enrichment. It is the sole US-owned uranium enrichment manufacturer, representing billions of dollars of IP and centrifugal technology. Combined with their recent price reset on their long-term contracts making them considerably more profitable, there are multiple ways to win with Centrus. Background Centrus Energy (LEU) represents the efforts of the American government’s uranium enrichment program that was spun off in 1999 for roughly 3B dollars. It was heavily reliant on government backing to support its facilities and after…

    • Initiation Price: $10.04
    • Upside: 200%
    • Current Status: Closed
    • Result: +350%

(NYSE:DFIN) Donnelley Financial: A Tale of 2 Companies

Donnelley Financial (DFIN) has seen declining revenues since its spinoff and investors have written it off as a dying print business. It is easy to overlook its incredible brand strength in certain business segments along with the successful transitioning of a growing share of its revenue to SaaS with this overhang. For a few key reasons discussed in this article, we believe their fundamentals are now poised to improve and there is 100% upside for investors from current levels. Background DFIN spun off from RR Donnelley in 2016. The company…

    • Initiation Price: $8.11
    • Upside: 150%
    • Current Status: Open

(NYSE:FC) Franklin Covey: An Undervalued Brand With An Overlooked SAAS Segment

The market has punished Franklin Covey’s (NYSE:FC) stock price, sending it tumbling 50% YTD. Given its solvency and growing SAAS segment, FC has about 100% upside to its valuation today. Background Franklin Covey is a leader in the highly fragmented L&D (Leadership and Development) corporate training industry. It is best known for content such as The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. On average, roughly $100 billion is spent on external providers such as FC per year. This is set to grow by 13% CAGR for the next four years.…

    • Initiation Price: $23.44
    • Upside: 100%
    • Current Status: Closed
    • Result: +120%