Intrinsic Investing

During our second quarter 2024 portfolio update, Ensemble Capital's Chief Investment Officer Sean Stannard-Stockton, and Senior Investment Analysts Arif Karim and Eileen Segall discuss current market and economic conditions, few short updates on Analog Digital Devices (ADI), Illumina (ILMN) and Chipotle (CMG) as well as an introduction of Veeva Systems (VEEV). There's a Q&A with the team at the end of the presentation. This is an audio replay of the full webinar. Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings.

During our first quarter 2024 portfolio update, Ensemble Capital's Chief Investment Officer Sean Stannard-Stockton, and Senior Investment Analysts Arif Karim and Eileen Segall discuss current market and economic conditions as well as Ferrari (RACE) & IDEX Corp (IEX). There's a Q&A with the team at the end of the presentation. This is an audio replay of the full webinar. Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings.

During our fourth quarter 2023 portfolio update, Ensemble Capital's Chief Investment Officer Sean Stannard-Stockton, and Senior Investment Analysts Arif Karim and Eileen Segall discuss current market and economic conditions as well as Netflix (NFLX). There's a Q&A with the team at the end of the presentation. This is an audio replay of the full webinar. Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings.

During our third quarter 2023 portfolio update, Ensemble Capital's Chief Investment Officer Sean Stannard-Stockton, and Senior Investment Analyst Arif Karim discuss current market and economic conditions as well as two of our holdings; Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI) and Mastercard, Inc. (MA). There's a Q&A with the team at the end of the presentation. This is an audio replay of the full webinar. Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings  

During our second quarter 2023 portfolio update, Ensemble Capital's Chief Investment Officer Sean Stannard-Stockton, and Senior Investment Analysts Arif Karim and Todd Wenning, discussed holdings Alphabet Inc. and ServiceNow, the current market and economic situation, as well as our framework when looking at the housing shortage of the country. There's a Q&A with the team at the end of the presentation. This is an audio replay of the full webinar. Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings

While the economy has become intangible-asset driven, the potential low cost advantages of tangible assets shouldn't be overlooked. Our ideal company has both intangible and tangible asset advantages.

In this episode, Ensemble's president announces that the company has obtained B Corporation certification and explains the connection between B Corporations and Ensemble's approach to stakeholder value analysis.

Many companies that experienced high growth in recent years are entering the difficult transition period from visionary- to optimizer-led growth. How each company handles that challenge will drive much of their performance in the next decade and beyond.

We examine the economic and market history of the 1970s and put it into the context of what to expect from a longer-term perspective.

In part II of our discussion of the math that supports superior investment returns, and how growth and value investors solve for superior returns differently, we look at Warren Buffett's investment in Coke to illustrate why long term superior returns must come from elevated growth rates.

Chief Investment Officer Sean Stannard-Stockton addresses First Republic Bank (FRC) and the broader impact of the banking crisis on the economy and financial markets. He also outlines our outlook for our strategy over the balance of 2023 and into 2024 and the economic drivers of why many of our holdings were up this quarter.   Please read important disclosure at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings.

Bad outcomes are a natural part of investing. Todd Wenning discusses why it does no good to dwell on regrets about decisions where a good process led to a bad outcome. Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings.

Value and Growth are not opposite approaches to investing. In this episode we explore why Warren Buffett says that a stock with a low valuation multiple may not be a good value, and how Ensemble Capital thinks about evaluating high growth and low growth businesses with an eye towards generating high rates of return.

In this episode, Todd Wenning discusses how companies with economic moats and relevant products can extend their competitive lifecycles for decades or more.  Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings.

In this episode, Sean Stannard-Stockton discusses why equity investors earn premium returns over bond investors in exchange for managing anxiety, and how equity investors should think about how to manage this challenge.

During our fourth quarter 2022 portfolio update, Ensemble Capital's Chief Investment Officer Sean Stannard-Stockton, and Senior Investment Analysts Arif Karim and Todd Wenning, discussed holdings Masimo and Paychex, the current market and economic situation, as well as recent portfolio performance. There's a Q&A with the team at the end of the presentation. This is an audio replay of the full webinar. Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings.

Quality investors often cite integrity as a characteristic they look for in management teams, but they rarely define what they mean. We aim to do that here by focusing on three ways we measure management integrity. Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings.

Not every brand is a defensible competitive advantages. Some brands, however, have nestled themselves in your mind and memories and are much harder to disrupt. Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings.

During our third quarter 2022 portfolio update, Ensemble Capital's Chief Investment Officer Sean Stannard-Stockton, and Senior Investment Analysts Arif Karim and Todd Wenning, discussed holdings NVR and Schwab, the current market and economic situation, as well as recent portfolio performance. There's a Q&A with the team at the end of the presentation. This is an audio replay of the full webinar. Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings.

The Nifty Fifty stocks from the 1970s were not the bubble they are thought of as today. We explore the lessons to be learned for investors today. Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings.

An exploration of the concept of duration in bond investing and how it is highly applicable to equity valuation as well. Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings.

Long-duration stocks are more sensitive to recessions and interest rate changes, but get hit particularly hard in stagflationary environments. We address how investors should think about long duration equities in today's market. Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings.

Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings. 2022 has been a brutal year for quality focused investors like us at Ensemble Capital. Rather than see the storm as a threat, we see it as an opportunity to look for what treasures have been left behind.

Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings. During our second quarter 2022 portfolio update, Ensemble Capital's Chief Investment Officer Sean Stannard-Stockton, and Senior Investment Analysts Arif Karim and Todd Wenning, discussed the current market and economic situation, as well as recent portfolio performance. There's a Q&A with the team at the end of the presentation. This is an audio replay of the full webinar.

Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings. During our first quarter 2022 portfolio update, Ensemble Capital's Chief Investment Officer Sean Stannard-Stockton, and Senior Investment Analysts Arif Karim and Todd Wenning, discussed the current market and economic situation, and two of our holdings, Alphabet (Google) and Chipotle. There's a Q&A with the team at the end of the presentation. This is an audio replay of the full webinar.

Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings. If you're a long-term investor, every one of your companies will go through at least one crisis. What type of companies do you want to own when other investors are losing their nerve?

Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings. We examine the history of how the US stock market has reacted to various military conflicts in the past and we offer our thinking on how investors should be thinking about the impact of the invasion of Ukraine on US stocks.

Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings. Investors have begun to panic that strong consumer demand in excess of economic supply, paired with the war in Ukraine sending oil prices skyrocketing, may result in a stagflationary economic environment. In this episode, we discuss why this outlook has caused weakness in our investment strategy, why we believe the market action is significantly overdone, why we think our portfolio holding are well positioned to navigate a stagflationary environment, and why stagflation may not even actually arrive.

Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings. With inflation rates at 40 year highs, we discuss how to tell the difference between companies with and without true pricing power.

Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings. A deep dive analysis of the purported reasons behind Netflix's recent 22% one day stock price decline and an explanation of why the company's long term growth opportunity remains intact.

Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings. During our third quarter 2021 portfolio update, Ensemble Capital's Chief Investment Officer Sean Stannard-Stockton, and Senior Investment Analysts Arif Karim and Todd Wenning, discussed the current market and economic situation, and two of our holdings, Blackline and Costco. There's a Q&A with the team at the end of the presentation. This is an audio replay of the full webinar.

Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings.  The concept of “design thinking,” the role of empathy, and its applicability to the investment process is explored.

Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings.  Historically, the best time to have sold Nintendo's stock is when demand for the current console waned. We think Switch will prove different.

Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings. With thousands of stocks to choose from for your portfolio, it helps to recognize promising patterns of great companies. In this episode, we provide a list of some of our favorite investment patterns that help us sort through companies, so that we can focus our attention on understanding the best of the best.

Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings. During our third quarter 2021 portfolio update, Ensemble Capital's Chief Investment Officer Sean Stannard-Stockton, and Senior Investment Analysts Arif Karim and Todd Wenning, discussed the current market and economic situation, and two of our holdings, Booking Holdings and Landstar. There's a Q&A with the team at the end of the presentation. This is an audio replay of the full webinar.

Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings.  There are some companies that broad base rates do not add value to as part of the forecasting process. We examine a collection of these types of businesses and offer Intuitive as a case study.

Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings. We examine as a case study of Netflix for moving beyond base rates.

Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings. Base rates are useful forecasting tools, but there are important problems with base rates that investors must keep in mind.

Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings. By using “base rates” investors can improve forecasting accuracy.

Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings.  Forecasting corporate growth and something investors as a group have a bad track record of doing well.

Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings. Companies are not static assets like gold or artwork, but in a state of constant change. Over a long enough timeline, the company you own today will be quite different from the one you originally bought. As long-term investors, then, we need to periodically reaffirm or alter our perceptions of the companies we own. Buying a company and passively holding it is something other than investing.

Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings. Even the highest quality companies will likely encounter large sell-offs over a decade. Sometimes those sell-offs are justified, other times they present tremendous buying opportunities. Long-term investors need to know the difference. This episode discusses how Ensemble evaluates such events and determine whether to buy, sell, or hold.  

Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings. Milton Friedman's concept of shareholder primacy is outdated. While the goal of shareholders is to earn profits, these profits are the outcome of successfully creating stakeholder value on behalf of customers, employees, suppliers and society at a large.

Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings. During our second quarter 2021 portfolio update, Ensemble Capital's Chief Investment Officer Sean Stannard-Stockton, and Senior Investment Analysts Arif Karim and Todd Wenning, discussed the current market and economic situation, and two of our holdings, Illumina and Nintendo. This is an audio replay of the full webinar.

Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings. At times, companies can get caught up in what's working now and ignore that the present circumstances are unsustainable. Unless they course-correct, they are creating an off-balance sheet liability for shareholders. 

Please read important disclosures at www.ensemblecapital.com/holdings. Quality investors often focus too much on the moat and not enough on the castle (i.e. the business), but the moat doesn't matter if the castle it's protecting is deteriorating.