In a quick blurb from last month, I flippantly wrote: “I don’t think 10x/1x EPS/BV for a moatless auto lender at or near the peak of the auto cycle is all that cheap.” Well, how about a sorta-moaty auto supplier trading at 7x? My sense is that auto stocks – their single digit earnings multiples […]
I looked at some Alternative Asset Managers (BX, KKR, CG, FIG, and OAK) a year ago as the group traded at depressed multiples and invested in OAK because I get Howard Marks’ investment philosophy (which seems to strongly imbue the organization despite Marks’ largely figure head status today) and frankly, I found the other names too […]
I was pitched this stock recently and thought it sounded interesting enough to write about (I like industries where supply and demand curves are shifting in big ways), although I think upside from a recovery in nitrogen fertilizer prices is largely baked into the current valuation. Substantial new capacity from China, lower freight costs (to […]
Investors are once again genuflecting before the altar of Malone. Here’s the bull case: to combat Amazon, traditional retailers are increasingly pursuing omnichannel strategies (selling their products online for delivery or customer pickup + bric & mortar) and adopting drop-shipping solutions as part of their online fulfillment process. Drop-shipping allows products ordered by a retailer’s […]
After having not followed eBay for a long while, I tuned into eBay’s Seller Summit in late 2015 where the company laid out its structured data agenda, intensifying its strategic move away from the messy, spectrum-of-value bazaar of an earlier .com era – when, in the absence of 2-day shipping and consumer experience, broad selection […]
Conservatively, the US needs to build about 1.3mn homes annually (MF and single-family) to keep pace with household formation (population growth + “headship” rates) and secondary home demand, and replace destroyed housing stock. Based on Census Bureau data, it looks like we overbuilt by around 3.5mn units from 2000 to 2007 and underbuilt by 4.1mn […]