Voyant Americas & Voyant Europe
Founded in 2006, Voyant Advisors consists of seven investment professionals seeking to identify publicly traded companies that exhibit significant risk of underperformance,
Two subscription services are offered. Voyant Americas provides rigorous analysis of listed companies in North and South America with an emphasis on U.S. listed companies. Voyant Europe is primarily focused on companies listed in the United Kingdom and Continental Europe.
Each service initiates coverage on 1 to 2 companies per month, with regular, time-sensitive updates published on thesis impacting events such as earnings releases, management presentations, company announcements, regulatory-related activity (i.e. informal SEC inquiries), and competitive landscape developments. The majority of published companies are above $1 billion in market capitalization with sufficient liquidity (generally > $15M average daily volume), and low short interest (generally < 15% of float). While coverage is sector-agnostic, the service provides considerable coverage of companies in the technology, industrial, consumer, and healthcare sectors.
The first stage of the research process involves a measurement of working capital and asset account quality across a wide universe of domestic and international companies with market capitalizations exceeding $1 billion. 30 to 40 sector-specific variables of working capital account quality are measured in four broad areas – receivables quality, inventory quality, cash flow, and asset quality. This initial process produces a subset of companies exhibiting characteristics that are consistent with unsustainable revenue and/or earnings. The second stage of the research process investigates methods of earnings management and accounting policy changes implemented by management to achieve recent consensus estimates. This process helps to guide the following fundamental analysis towards segments of the business that are most likely responsible for the disparity between current Street estimates and the actual earnings power of the company. Fundamental research includes calls to publicly-traded customers, suppliers, and competitors in order to gather effective data points and additional clarity on the competitive challenges faced by the company. The third step of the research process includes the analysis of company disclosures and financial statements, financial modeling, and ongoing dialogue with peers, customers, and suppliers.
A thesis may materialize through a variety of catalysts including a negative earnings preannouncement, an earnings and/or revenue miss, a negative guidance revision, a financial restatement, or some other material adverse event (such as an SEC enforcement action). A thesis may be invalidated through a number of means including, but not limited to, an improvement in certain working capital account metrics (e.g. receivables quality, inventory quality, cash flow quality, etc.) or a bona fide takeover. We provide continuous coverage of each company until a thesis materializes or has proven to be incorrect.
All subscription clients are allowed unlimited contact with the analysts at Voyant Advisors. Analysts are available off-hours for clients based in Europe and Asia. Clients are also provided with access to an on-line, searchable library of all published subscription research.