Five interesting things that Hodges Capital research analysts discovered this week...

#1 PARTY LIKE IT'S 1956: Primary results are in, and Trump and Biden have the votes to represent their respective parties this Fall. The last presidential election rematch was way back in 1956, Eisenhower vs. Stevenson. There has been a total of seven presidential rematches. The statistics get rarer when considering a president who has served in the White House, lost the following term, and then won back a second term from the opponent he previously lost to. Only Grover Cleveland has the distinction of serving two non-consecutive terms back in the 1800's.

#2 LOOK BOTH WAYS: The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) preliminary 2023 data for pedestrian traffic projects showed that drivers struck and killed 3,373 people walking in the first half of 2023 – down 4% from the year before but 14% above 2019. The report highlights the persistently high death toll since pre-pandemic years, attributing it to the decline in traffic enforcement, which has enabled more speeding and impaired driving. Additional reasons cited include distracted drivers on cellphones, larger SUVs, and suboptimal pedestrian sidewalk infrastructures. By State, the highest pedestrian death rates (per 1,000) occur in New Mexico, and the lowest rates are in Vermont.  

#3 A CHANGE FOR THE WORSE: Change Healthcare is a division of the big Health Insurer UnitedHealth that administers key services such as claims processing, eligibility verification, physician payments, and clearing pre-authorizations to providers across the U.S. Several weeks ago, the Change computer systems were hacked, leading to disruptions across the healthcare ecosystem and recently the CEO was summoned to the White House. UnitedHealth noted that temporary manual solutions are needed to minimize the impact on patient's access to care and healthcare provider business operations. Currently, 90% of claims are flowing uninterrupted, with a target of reaching 95% by next week.

#4 THE CLOCK IS TICKING: President Biden said he will sign a new bill that would force Chinese company ByteDance (Private) to divest its stake in the popular video app TikTok. The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act appears to have a far more straightforward path to passage than any previous proposals, starting with its passage in the House on Wednesday.

#5 NOT SO PRIVATE ROUGH PATCH: Private Equity Managers' distributions to their investors are at a low on par with the dotcom bust and the Global Financial Crisis era levels. This is measured by distributions as a percentage of Net Asset Value and provided by Raymond James. There are fewer exit routes such as IPOs, and potential public company buyers say that private companies haven't adjusted their asking price down enough to reflect the valuation compression since 2021 peak market levels. 2023 also proved a challenging year for raising money for new funds, even for the biggest PE firms. The seven largest public PE firms combined raised capital at a level 15.4% lower than last year.

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