SID 0035 Knowles - Part 2

Knowles two most important businesses, MEMS microphones and hearing aid components, share a common theme of eroding market dominance.  But, management has devoted a large percentage of revenue into R&D that might address new developments.  In Part 2 of this podcast on Knowles, we discuss how Knowles has positioned itself to capture new sources of demand from the internet of things (IoT), and how it has addressed greenfield needs in hearables, e.g. small earbuds, which require distributed processing power.  We also discuss how packagers enjoyed a huge upswing in recent years, but have begun to back off, in our opinion shifting the balance of power back towards the two clear leaders in the upstream production of bare microphone dies, Knowles and Infineon.

Om Podcasten

Stocks-in-Depth thoroughly examines the fundamentals of reasonably valued high-quality small and mid-cap growth companies. It is produced by GARP Research, a provider of equity research to institutions including many of the most well-known fund managers for over 20 years. GARP is known for its granular modelling of business lines and in-depth assessment of competition and served markets. Stocks-in-Depth searches for value and growth by researching stocks that may be out of favor, or where a major catalyst to earnings growth is hidden. Our financial models attempt to shed light on trends underneath opaque segment reporting. Stocks in Depth emphasizes balance sheet accounts and profitability margins to determine underlying return on capital, and maintains healthy skepticism regarding pro forma adjustments and undue reliance upon unconventional measures such as EBITDA. We emphasize field visits with managements, industry conferences, non-public competitors and ancillary fields to detect industry dynamics. In our search for the best companies and investment opportunities, we often challenge the consensus view. StocksinDepth forecasts over the long-term, typically over about a three year horizon, and review track records going back for years.