Actively Speaking Podcast Epoch Investment Partners

In 2023 we saw the explosion in popularity of drugs to treat obesity, known as GLP-1s and attractive returns for their manufacturers. With the popularity showing no signs of diminishing in 2024, Quality Capital Reinvestment Analyst Tim Wengerd, who covers health care companies, joins to discuss the implications for investors. Looking beyond health care, Tim and Steve also explore what other types of companies may be impacted by the wide use of GLP-1s.

The expectations coming out of the COVID pandemic was that China's economy would experience a rebound, but that has not materialized. In this episode we look at some of the potential reasons for that including a slowing housing market, the tapering of the migration from rural to urban regions and the buildup of debt.

With share buybacks on the rise, Shareholder Yield Portfolio Manager John Tobin, PhD joins to discuss how shareholders benefit when a company buys back its stock. He also explores why management teams should not try to time their buybacks. Finally, John and Steve explore the impact of the U.S. tax on buybacks that went into effect at the beginning of 2023.

We look at the importance of understanding how company management is compensated. At a very basic level, we believe that incentives matter. Presumably, executives want to maximize their compensation, so any time you are thinking of investing in a company, you should want to know what incentives those executives are responding to, because that will tell you what kinds of actions they are likely to take. (February 21, 2023)

For three decades, "globalization" was the dominant economic paradigm. But in the wake of pandemic, war, and a new geopolitical reality, the tide of globalization is reversing. In this episode, Global Investment Strategist Kevin Hebner explains what that will mean in the near term for some key industries like energy and technology, and what other impacts we might see in the longer term. We also discuss the challenges for Chinese equities and U.S.-based multinational corporations, which have been the two biggest beneficiaries of globalization. (December 1, 2022)

The impact of the Russian war in Ukraine has made many countries, especially Europe, reconsider their stance on nuclear power. Senior Research Analyst Michael Jin joins the podcast to discuss the history of nuclear power, the ESG implications, whether the need for nuclear power will be enough to overcome people's perhaps irrational fear of nuclear, and how the technology has changed since the first wave of plants were built decades ago. (September 14, 2022)