The Shares Researcher

Intro Universal Music Group (UMG) is the world's largest music company, home to labels like Interscope, Capitol, Motown, Def Jam, and EMI, and to artists ranging from Taylor Swift and Drake to The Beatles and Bob Marley. The business operates in three segments – Recorded Music, Music Publishing, and Merchandising – across more than 60 countries. Its publishing arm alone administers nearly 4.5 million titles. UMG was spun out of French conglomerate Vivendi and listed on Amsterdam's Euronext exchange in September 2021. Valuation At €15.66, UMG trades near its all-time low and roughly 47% below its May 2024 peak. The market cap sits at approximately €29 billion. On adjusted 2025 earnings per share of €1.03, the stock trades at a trailing P/E of around 15x – the lowest valuation the company has ever carried as a public entity. The dividend for 2025 totals €0.52 per share, translating into a yield of about 3.3%. Full-year 2025 revenue came in at €12.5 billion, up 8.7% in c...

Intro Domino's Pizza Group is the exclusive master franchise holder for Domino's Pizza in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The company doesn't own the Domino's brand itself – it licenses it from the US-based Domino's Pizza Inc – but it does control the entire UK and Irish operation: the supply chain, the digital platform, and the franchise relationships with the local operators who run about 1,400 stores. The UK franchise dates back to 1985, when the first store opened in Luton. The master franchise was acquired in 1993. For a while, management tried to replicate the model abroad – Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Switzerland – but those ventures proved costly and distracting. Between 2019 and 2021, the company exited all its directly operated international markets and refocused entirely on the UK and Ireland. It was the right call. 2025 brought more disruption at the top. CEO Andrew Rennie departed by mutual agreement in November after just two years in the role, repo...

Some of the companies discussed on this blog over the years have reached – or come close to – their estimated intrinsic value. With the current market offering a number of compelling new opportunities (more on that soon), it makes sense to rotate out of the winners and redeploy the capital. Two positions to write about: Basler Kantonalbank was first discussed in April 2021. The participation certificates have performed very well since then, reaching the price target. Excluding dividends, the capital gain amounts to roughly 67%. Including the steady dividend payments over the holding period, the total return is even higher. A nice outcome for a quiet, under-the-radar Swiss cantonal bank.   Fresenius SE was highlighted in October 2020 at €34.06. The new management's strategic overhaul – simplifying the group structure, sharpening the focus on Kabi and Helios, and restoring margin discipline – has started to bear fruit, and the market has taken notice. The stock has gained more th...

Some readers have reached out and asked why I am currently posting so many new blog entries (spoiler alert: there is more in the pipeline). The answer is simple. Since I started this blog roughly six years ago, the goal was always to look for cheap, out-of-favour companies trading at low valuations. Benjamin Graham famously said that the market is a voting machine in the short run but a weighing machine in the long run. Following that logic, there are times when attractively priced shares are plentiful – and other times when they are much harder to find. As a consequence of geopolitical disruptions, an ever-changing tariff situation, and heightened uncertainty, some well-run and solid businesses – especially industrial companies – have been on sale. Adding to this, capital has been flowing heavily into US tech and growth stocks for years, leaving many solid European industrials trading at historically wide valuation discounts to their American peers. The recent turmoil has only wid...

Intro Tecan Group is a Swiss laboratory automation specialist founded in 1980 by four engineers working out of a home office in Switzerland. Over the past four decades, the company has grown into a global leader in liquid handling, robotic workstations and detection instruments – the kind of equipment that pharma companies, diagnostic labs and university research departments rely on to process samples at scale. If you've had a blood test or a COVID PCR swab, there's a decent chance a Tecan-built machine was involved somewhere along the chain. The company operates in two segments. Life Sciences Business sells instruments and consumables directly to end users. Partnering Business develops and manufactures OEM instruments and components that are then sold by diagnostic and medtech partners under their own brands. The stock has dropped roughly 80% from its September 2021 peak of CHF 602, hammered by a post-pandemic destocking cycle, reduced pharma and biotech R&D spending...

Intro Sodexo was founded in 1966, starting as a small catering company serving institutions and businesses. Nearly 60 years later, it has grown into one of the world's largest food services and facilities management companies, operating in over 40 countries with around 400,000 employees. A key feature of Sodexo is its ownership structure. The Bellon family controls approximately 44% of the capital through their holding company Bellon SA, carrying nearly 59% of voting rights. In 2015, the family entered into a 50-year agreement preventing descendants from freely disposing of their shares – a strong signal of long-term commitment. In early 2024, Sodexo spun off its employee benefits and vouchers business, Pluxee, which is now independently listed. This was a decisive move, transforming Sodexo into a pure-play food and facilities management company. The cross-shareholding with Bellon SA was also unwound the same year, with the proceeds returned to shareholders as a special divid...