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SFM - Solid Q, business is humming along and everything is looking good. Seems like SFM has carved out a bit of a “moat” or a niche for special products things that you cant find at other retailers or things that other retailers don’t have (or don’t want to) have access to and customers are loving SFM for it. A bit that I did not like is that management is keep on buying back shares at current levels with P/E at almost 30 seems like a waste of money to me, but maybe I don’t know something and management thinks that currently they are still undervalued. Just realized that Seeking Alpha is showing Short Interest at almost 10% so maybe getting short sellers squeezed out not so bad… but that’s just a side observation…
IAC - Although you wouldn’t call it by the stock performance, IAC is doing okay as overall business. DDM is slowly but surely turning around and it’s D/Cipher is growing and showing promising even if Google wont be killing cookies, D/Cipher is showing that it can stand on its own and that is a plus for IAC in a long run. Lots of cash on the sidelines that IAC can deploy and of course Turo that everyone in the world waiting for them to go public. As investors our goal is to generate good returns on our investments in a “safe” way and I think over the long run this investment will work out… I have time to wait…
SPOT - Some might say that SPOT is an outlier, I say SPOT and its team has shown power of Win-Win-Win. Growing all around and flexing its pricing power, SPOT is providing way more then its charging that is including labels and customers. Becoming number two just behind Audible, I think SPOT can be number one in audiobooks and my only problem is to figure out how to value it all…
NTDOY - Not surprised by Nintendo’s earnings report, you cant expend much until I think Christmas ish (or 2025) when I would think Nintendo would reveal the new Switch
Best Anchor Stocks did a good post that’s worth reading (and its worth to follow Leandro in general on Substack and X)
PYPL - Alex Chriss is slowly but surely moving the old ship to a new land and I think this might be the pivoting Q and good things to see a head… I’m optimistic but following with caution…
Giro Lino did a great job to go over the earnings for PYPL 0.00%↑ and much much better job then I would ever could, check out click here to read report.
BSM - You can not expect much (except the discipline while waiting) from a company that relies on high Nat Gas prices to do what it does. Okay Q, but we are waiting unless nat gas sky rocket this wont be a home run and that is fine… getting 10% or so dividend while we wait is not too bad and I think this deserves a place in portfolio. Proper allocation amount is a different question and the one that I’m still thinking about…
LKQ - Another not so good Q, last one was blamed on bad weather and this one on macro overall, we don’t measure things in Qs but it does make sense to keep an eye on this one. I called LKQ a sleepy compounder because I thought being the largest player it can flex its muscle around, giving this a bit of a question but we wait. Given that LKQ is cutting things that they do not like in Europe and moving into Canada more, there is still light at the end of the tunnel.
BUR - I’m a simple man, I’m told that YPF can be worth the whole market cap of a company and I buy, jokes a side. BUR and the team being very secretive is a turnoff to some, but given their line of business you must be comfortable with what they do and how they do it and for now I do not feel like there is misalignment contrary management seems like they are very much in line with shareholders. In 2025 BUR will start do regular 10Ks and 10Qs and I think more people will get warmed up by BUR, my margin of safety is YPF and everything else is a cherry on top.
EVVTY - Okay Q with nothing too crazy, a lot of noise around Evolution and for now numbers still look good.
Ali with Do Not Distribute explained it much better then I could
OPFI - the little engine that could, Todd Schwartz is showing masterclass in capital allocation or at least that is what it seems so far and I like it. Previous Q bough back shares, special dividend and this Q showing that the new models working well + buying into Bitty equity is becoming very interesting…
WBD - Unlike OPFI (in terms of capital allocation) WBD and Z-man are not doing as well. WBD lost on NBA rights (although I do not see this AS a big deal as others, but that could be because I don’t really get NBA as much, if anything WBD suing if won will make some cash + the money saved with not having to pay those rights)… Now I do think Z-man has a tough hand to work with and I think he is doing what he thinks is best given what he got but damn its a hard business… if you ignore the $10B non cash write down, things are not looking as bad… but please correct me if I’m wrong … over 100mm global subscribers + quarterly/yearly paying down of debt looks good to me…
VMD - Humming along and at some point Mr Market will come to his senses…
MITK - Now MITK was a surprise, management states that the surprise is “one off” and next quarter we are back to business as usual, BUT usually (at least it seems like so in investing world) there is no such thing as one offs, after one off there is another one off that is just not as the previous one off but still the similar camp… now I do not know if IT IS one off or NOT, what I can say if it is one off things are not as bad as they seem. if R&D can get their stuff together and be back to normal next Q , stock should re rate back up but that’s a big IF… I’m still in it and might start buying heavier if it drifts lower…
OZK - To me it looked like a solid Q for OZK, as y’all know I’m definitely not the smartest person in the room or even the 100ths smartest but what I do know that history does not repeat but it rhymes and Mr Gleason has shown time after time that discipline and patience pays the dividends… there are a lot of noise in the market on OZK and CRE and other regional banks, for now my money is on OZK and Mr Gleason. If I’m learning anything from investing is that wonderful companies defy all other’s concerns and come out on top (as long as they are not frauds lol)
TCS - Not much to add regarding TCS’s Q things are not good but they are also not so bad… recent market volatility allowed me make some minor options profits but otherwise TCS is still looking for strategic alternatives while opening up new smaller stores…
UG - Good Q from UG but increased sales are primarily attributable to purchases from their largest cosmetic distributor. UG also increased its dividends but otherwise not much of a way to increase the stock price. Cant really do buy backs…
Books
I realized that my descriptions of the books that I read may not always give them full credit as when I read these books and when I write about them, I only share one or two things that really stand out to me. So I have decided to also include a quick short description from Goodreads (no affiliations) so that way you get my thoughts but also more generic description to get a better feel for the books and in so hopefully adding them to your “to-read-list”.
This was a bit different from my usual reads but I thought it was great given there is a possibility of me going into a new venture with “founders” as an “investor” so I thought it would be good to listen on from Zalman and Neumann perspective on the subject.
I cant say it was an eye opener but there were some gems, yet again I come to conclusion that you cant beat honestly and common sense
Goodreads:
How many world-changing startups will fail because the founders and investors never figure out how to work together? Founder Elizabeth Zalman and Investor Jerry Neumann square off in this one-of-a-kind book, exposing how startups are built, broken, and fought over. Every iconic tech company was once a startup. And while these companies like to paint an origin story full of surefooted confidence, the truth is usually something the early life of most startups is pure chaos. This chaos comes from the vastly different motivations and incentives between those with the vision and those with the money. From fundraising paranoia to boardroom coups, Zalman and Neumann train their inimitable voices on the gulf between what founders and investors promise to do and what they end up actually doing. Founder vs Investor is the brutal truth, from each side’s perspective, of the pitfalls of this tenuous relationship—where bad blood can turn sure things into shattered dreams. It is the only book written by insiders with the temerity to pull back the curtain on the world of high growth venture-backed startups.
This was a great listen and for a second I thought it was book about Charlie Munger (I did not read the whole title about the whole 109 years old) but after “doing double take” I realized its not Charlie Munger but still a man that I think Charlie Munger would love to chat with.
Charlie White lived an extraordinary life and I’m so happy that David Von Drehle wrote this book.
I highly recommend reading or listening to this book!
Goodreads:
When a veteran Washington journalist moved to Kansas, he met a new neighbor who was more than a century old. Little did he know that he was beginning a long friendship—and a profound lesson in the meaning of life. Charlie White was no ordinary neighbor. Born before radio, Charlie lived long enough to use a smartphone. When a shocking tragedy interrupted his idyllic boyhood, Charlie mastered survival strategies that reflect thousands of years of human wisdom. Thus armored, Charlie’s sense of adventure carried him on an epic journey across the continent, and later found him swinging across bandstands of the Jazz Age, racing aboard ambulances through Depression-era gangster wars, improvising techniques for early open-heart surgery, and cruising the Amazon as a guest of Peru’s president.
David Von Drehle came to understand that Charlie’s resilience and willingness to grow made this remarkable neighbor a master in the art of thriving through times of dramatic change. As a gift to his children, he set out to tell Charlie’s secrets. The Book of Charlie is a gospel of grit—the inspiring story of one man’s journey through a century of upheaval. The history that unfolds through Charlie’s story reminds you that the United States has always been a divided nation, a questing nation, an inventive nation—a nation of Charlies in the rollercoaster pursuit of a good and meaningful life.
