Category Archives: Quick Blurbs

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Quick Blurbs [Ryanair, Equinix, Interxion, Amerco]

[RYAAY – Ryanair] Anchor Post: [RYAAY – Ryanair] Low Cost Flywheel In mid-September last year, Ryanair announced that it would be cancelling 2% of its daily flights over the subsequent 6 weeks to free up aircraft and ensure punctual departure times for the other 98%.  The press attributed this snafu, which inconvenienced 0.5% of Ryanair’s […]

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[MCEM – Monarch Cement] Ash Grove Part Deux?

[MCEM – Monarch Cement] On Sept. 20, Ash Grove announced that it agreed to be acquired by its largest customer, CRH plc, a global producer of building materials cement with €27bn in sales and €3bn in EBITDA across 31 countries. [For background on Ash Grove, see these previous posts]. “While the final amount of the […]

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[FAST – Fastenal] Notes from CFO Convo; [ASHG – Ash Grove] Constructive Cement Pricing, Stock Is Cheap

[FAST – Fastenal] Fastenal’s dense branch network affords scale advantages in distribution and service relative to Grainger, which has 2.5x Fastenal’s sales but only ~1/10 its branches and ~1/7 its field employees.  Local market density is especially important because fasteners, which comprise nearly 40% of the company’s sales and a greater proportion of gross profits, is […]

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Quick Blurbs [MSCI, Paypal, S&P Global]

[SPGI – S&P Global, MSCI – MSCI Inc.] New indices are created every day as passive strategies flourish and investors invent ways to track exposures across asset classes, geographies, sectors, and market caps.  They are stamped with the imprimatur of a well-known provider, validated with fresh pools of capital, and before long, become indispensable benchmarks or […]

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Quick Blurbs [SAP, Tripadvisor]

[TRIP – Tripadvisor] This stock had a few crazy trading days last week, opening down 8% before closing up 2.5% on the first full trading day post-earning and then rallying again days later, apparently sparked by rustlings of a take-out [TRIP’s chairman Greg Maffei stoked such hopes a few months ago].  At least opposes this hypothetical […]

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Quick Blurbs [CF Industries, Signet Jewelers, Amerco]

(2,536 words) [SIG – Signet Jewelers] I have zero interest in this stock, but sometimes it’s fun to reminisce on missed calls.  About a year ago, a friend who manages a long/short fund was considering shorting SIG and asked for my opinion.  I said I thought it was a bad idea.  At the time, the […]

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Quick Blurbs [Alliance Data, American Express, Bank of America, Interactive Brokers, CarMax, Supervalu]

[IBKR – Interactive Brokers] Partly due to an exceptionally low volatility trading environment, which has made it difficult to earn profits and which Petterfy says may continue “indefinitely,” the company is winding down its options market making operations. While the company will use the excess capital from market making to further support its brokerage operations, the […]

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Quick Blurbs [Delta Airlines, Dollar General, Dollar Tree, Greenbrier, MSC Industrial, Fastenal]

[DG – Dollar General; DLTR – Dollar Tree] A confluence of uglies – food deflation, welfare cuts, and pronounced competition – have resulted in slight same store sale contraction at DG (the first negative in at least a decade) and deceleration at DLTR, catalyzing 20%-25% sell-offs in both stocks since Summer 2016. Here’s what all […]

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