Rounding up the Q1 2023 Earnings season

This month Andy talks with Amit about the Q1 earnings season that is unfolding. Of particular interest are the results of Blackstone, Microsoft, Amazon, S&P Global, and Meta.

Despite a very challenging quarter in financial markets, Blackstone still raised US$40 billion in new assets, bringing total AUM to US$991 billion. With US$194 billion in ‘dry powder,’ Blackstone is well positioned to take advantage of any opportunities, particularly in commercial real estate and private credit.

The idea of ‘operating leverage’ – a concept that means revenues grow faster than costs, and profit margins expand as a result – is something that we are seeing across many of Montaka’s investee companies. S&P Global, for example, grew revenues by 4% per annum, while costs increased by only 1% per annum. Microsoft, while still growing +10% per annum in the most recent quarter, grew costs at only around 3% per annum.

Meta is yet another example. As revenue growth resumes, Mark Zuckerberg is aggressively reducing costs. Meta’s original forecast was for US$94-100B in total costs in FY23. In January, the company lowered this forecast to US$88-94B, excluding one-time restructuring costs. Now, in recent days, the company has reduced the forecast again to US$82-86B, excluding one-time restructuring costs… representing a cost base that, rather than growing by 10% relative to last year, it actually is shrinking by 5%.

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