Featured Research

Energy

Power & Utility Update: Look Through the Noise and See Something for Everyone
Despite inflation concerns and an attendant upward shift in rate expectations, many of the regulated utilities in our coverage have been remarkably resilient in recent weeks. Looking through the headlines, the outlook for renewable power is as good as ever. Accordingly, we see players with the strongest development portfolios as best positioned.

Resuming Coverage of Canadian Midstream Companies
Midstream energy companies fit into a capital discipline patch. Capital discipline is the new mantra for oil and gas companies; well-located midstream assets should continue to benefit from additional capital deployments. Also, energy transition investments should continue to be a regular part of capital portfolios.

Plugging Products and Cars; EV Charging With a Twist
Broad-based accessibility of charging infrastructure is a vital facet of accelerating the light-duty electric vehicle adoption curve. Not only does EV mainstreaming depend on more charging sites overall, but the geographic imbalances need to be addressed as well. Our report examines the EV value chain and a company operating one of the larger U.S. charging markets.

Financial Services

Commercial Real Estate Providers 101
The CRE services industry has continued to evolve in meaningful and positive ways, a trend that has been playing out for the last decade. While the sharp economic downturn caused by the pandemic was a painful reminder that brokerage revenues will always have economic sensitivity, it also served to highlight the increased resilience of CRE service provider business models since the global financial crisis.

Industrial

Western Canada Propulsion Tour
We had an opportunity to hold site tours and sit down with the management teams of three leading power and propulsion companies: an intelligent electrification company and two companies engaged in aspects of producing and selling fuel cells. If there is a single common theme emanating from the three meetings, it is growth and investment. All three companies are positioning themselves quite readily for the growth curves that will ultimately manifest beyond 2024.

Institutional Equity Strategy

Raymond James CO2 Primer: What Investors Need to Know About Carbon Emissions and How They Are Priced Around the World
This report takes a comprehensive, holistic approach to carbon dioxide emissions around the world. Climate-related issues are front and center in the headlines, making it all the more important to have a solid foundation in the underlying trends. Here, we delve into CO2 from political and economic perspectives.

Equity Investing Through Economic Cycles: A Comprehensive Analysis
In this report, we analyze equity returns across major U.S. indexes used for benchmarks and various industry sectors within those indexes across various economic cycles since 1999. We utilize the shape of the yield curve to define early, mid, and late economic cycles.

Real Estate

Strong Housing Outlook Promises Better Days for Lumber
After a quarter of unprecedented volatility in the lumber markets, recent pricing trends seem to be indicating stabilization. We continue to see a positive outlook for higher stabilized commodity pricing moving into 2022, driven by 1) an expected re-acceleration of U.S. housing starts activity as homebuilders aggressively open a wave of new selling communities for 2022; 2) production curtailment announcements continue to grow in high-cost regions; and 3) excess inventory finally clears from saturated big box retailers and treaters.

Technology and Communications

Revenge of the Telcos; Fiber-Fueled Comeback
Two forces are at work that we believe are going to keep cable multiples from expanding over the next few years: 1) competitive expansion and 2) regulatory encroachment. First, the telcos are making slow, steady investments in fiber to overbuild their legacy copper networks and are poised to effectively double their current fiber passings. Second, when the executive branch gets a full complement of commissioners, we fully expect Title II to be restored and some form of price regulation to be implemented.

Resuming Coverage of Content Delivery Networks
We believe the CDN companies represent an important part of the telecom ecosystem and are well-positioned in the world of data. Specifically, CDNs ride on and are located on top of the telecom carriers; facilitate the streaming and data services that cable, telco and wireless customers consume, generate, and utilize; and are located inside the data centers that house, exchange and transport this growing amount of global data.

Transportation

Initiation of the Truckload Sector: Pivotal Decade Ahead for the Backbone of the U.S. Economy
On the heels of our detailed supply/demand analysis of the truckload market, we believe the industry is likely set to gradually loosen in coming quarters, pending a slew of dynamics: newly formed carriers gaining access to equipment; a degree of supply chain normalizations; wage increases flowing through the industry; and no material incremental degradation in productivity/dwell times.

Washington Policy

Outlook for Bank Regulatory Policy: Catalysts Ahead for Regulatory Action
An inflection point may be ahead in terms of an uptick in regulatory actions, shifting views on bank M&A, and consumer protections/crypto scrutiny rising on the list of agency priorities. With appointments for top regulatory posts lagging behind initial expectations, an uptick on regulatory actions may be guided by personnel changes at the Fed and an acceptance of key policies being guided by acting agency heads.