Lam Research: Strong figures, spooked investors
Lam Research builds machines without which no modern chip can be made. The Californian company’s equipment deposits ultra-thin layers of material onto silicon wafers and etches the finest structures into them. Its customers are the major manufacturers of memory and logic chips. The figures for the first quarter of the 2026/27 financial year exceeded expectations. Revenue rose by just over 54% year on year to USD 8.22 billion. Earnings per share climbed 76% to USD 2.19.
Nevertheless, the share price headed south. The trigger was management’s comments on the business outlook, which investors interpreted as a warning signal. This tallies with a concern voiced by research firm GLJ Research: potential construction stoppages at US data centres could delay individual projects by 12 to 18 months. From the all-time high of USD 433 reached at the end of June, the price fell to USD 185 by early November, a 57% decline. That seems excessive. Demand for computing power for artificial intelligence, and thus also for semiconductors, remains high. After all, postponed does not mean cancelled. The net profit of USD 2.75 billion in just one quarter also leaves room for dividends and share buybacks.
The stock market seems to be coming to its senses again after the initial panic reaction: on Monday alone, the price rose by more than 10%. The shares are now trading at USD 221 again, and at around EUR 197 on German trading venues. Analysts believe the Silicon Valley company has considerably more potential. Most experts recommend Buy. Their average price target is between USD 360 and USD 385, depending on the survey, equating to upside potential of more than 60%.
equating to upside potential of more than 60%.
Strategic Resources: High-grade ores, powerful shareholders
Strategic Resources’ share price has also more than halved – and in an even shorter time. Since mid-August, the Canadian resource explorer’s shares have fallen from CAD 0.30 to CAD 0.14. Although the loss per share more than halved from CAD 0.56 to CAD 0.27 in the 2026/27 financial year ended in late June, the stock market initially failed to reward this. At least here, too, the share price jumped by almost 8% on Monday, after previously plunging to a multi-year low of CAD 0.13. The share price weakness seems paradoxical, as Strategic Resources aims to play a key role in climate-friendly steel production. To this end, iron ore concentrate is to be processed into so-called DR-grade pellets at the deep-water port of Port Saguenay in Québec. These are precisely the high-grade pellets that are particularly suitable for producing green, or low-CO₂, steel – exactly the material that groups such as thyssenkrupp and Salzgitter are desperately seeking.
The required material is to be extracted at Strategic Resources’ nearby BlackRock project. It has reserves of 127.8 million tonnes of ore containing iron, vanadium and titanium. Mining is fully permitted, and the net present value is estimated at CAD 1.9 billion over a 39-year mine life, with potential for extension to over 100 years. This compares with a market capitalisation of only just over CAD 8 million. This discrepancy shows that the stock market does not yet trust management’s ambitious plans. At the end of June, cash stood at CAD 1.7 million. Without fresh money, there might not be enough funds to build the mine, smelter and pelletising plant. Total costs are estimated at up to CAD 500 million.
What the stock market is overlooking, however: Strategic Resources has prominent investors behind it who have a strong interest in advancing the project. One is Investissement Québec, the Canadian province’s state-owned investment company. The other is Orion Resource Partners, a private equity firm specialising in mining. Each holds around 41% of the shares. In addition, the Québec government is financing the CAD 110 million conveyor system at the port, as well as further utility infrastructure worth CAD 170 million. Moreover, international commodities trader Javelin Global Commodities is ready to act as an offtake and marketing partner and has also indicated the prospect of working-capital financing of up to USD 150 million.
A Second Pillar in Northern Finland
Another prominent name can be found among the shareholders: Ross Beaty. The Canadian mining legend has created billions in value through Pan American Silver and Equinox Gold and represents the second major asset in Strategic Resources’ portfolio: the Mustavaara project in northern Finland, which accounted for around 10% of global vanadium production between 1976 and 1985. Both vanadium and titanium are added to high-quality steel to increase its strength and resistance to heat and cold. From 2020, Beaty intended to use his Lumina Group to create a vehicle centred on Strategic Resources for establishing Western vanadium production, but shelved this plan again when global market prices collapsed.
The timing would currently be favourable for a revival. At the end of June, Strategic Resources announced that the vanadium-rich magnetite concentrate from Mustavaara had been selected for a University of Oulu research project with funding of EUR 17 million. It runs through 2029 and, together with Swedish-Finnish steel group SSAB, is investigating the possibility of converting the Raahe steelworks into a hydrogen-based, low-CO₂ production chain. Here, too, a potential buyer for the raw material would therefore be ready.
It is hard to imagine Strategic Resources’ anchor shareholders allowing a construction-ready project to fail because of a funding gap. Stock market investors have not yet woken up, but that could change. The annual general meeting will take place in Montréal on December 16. If a solution is found by then, the market is likely to revalue the shares. Potential upside is evident in BlackRock’s project value and the vanadium deposit in Mustavaara, which is not reflected in the share price at all. Historical share price data also show that Strategic Resources was once valued significantly higher. At the beginning of 2023, the shares cost more than CAD 2.50, a completely different level from the current asking price of CAD 0.14 (around EUR 0.08 in Germany).
Fielmann: The turnaround is already here
At Fielmann, by contrast, the rediscovery of the shares is already a fact. The Hamburg-based optician and hearing aid specialist has ended its weak spell with its latest figures. In the third quarter, revenue grew 5.1% to EUR 649 million. After nine months, revenue stands at EUR 1.9 billion, while profit climbed from EUR 160 million to EUR 169 million. The management board confirmed the full-year guidance lowered in August. At the same time, it is accelerating expansion: around 70 new branches are to open in 2026, compared with 22 in the previous year. The US business remains a blemish, with its margin declining recently.
Since the low of EUR 36.75 in mid-October, the share price has risen to its current level of EUR 43.95. There is still room to reach the 52-week high of EUR 47.65; 10 years ago, the shares even cost more than EUR 70. Analysts differ in their assessment of the remaining upside. Baader Bank gives a price target of EUR 43, roughly the current level. Berenberg considers EUR 55 achievable, while Deutsche Bank even sees EUR 62 possible. The average price target is EUR 53.33, a good 21% above today’s level. While Fielmann cannot offer the potential to multiply in value like Strategic Resources, it can offer a crisis-resistant business model and a dividend yield of over 3%.
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