The Weird Stuff

It is hard to put oil refining, rendering, satellites, gold, fertilizer, local TV stations, and seeds in a specific sector, so I will call them weird stuff.

Wall Street does a bad job of covering these unique companies because they do not fit in a normal industry.

Weird companies are an important part of my value strategy. Yes, I do worry about the economy and interest rates, but if I could find 25 great weird companies the world would be a simpler place.

1. Iridium - IRDM - $25 - difficult to understand satellite business, not competing with Elon

2. Nexstar - NXST - $209 - could benefit from deregulation, see TEGNA deal

3. Corteva - CTVA - $72 - seeds are a growth business, pesticides are an issue

4. Nutrien - NTR $57 - doing great, the world needs food

5. Darling - DAR - $31 - tricky call on California rules

6. Royal Gold - RGLD - $170 - great properties, acquisition was OK

7. Sinclair - DINO - $45 - margins are impossible to predict

8. Halliburton - HAL - $21 - waiting for the upturn in drilling

9. Red Rock Resorts RRR - $61 - locals market doing much better than the Strip

10. Matador Resources - MTDR - $47 - unique Delaware Basin assets

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Weird Companies and Energy

1. Devon Energy - DVN - $34 - why do I not own this?

2. Kirby - KEX - $98 - barges, what could be sexier

3. Helmerich & Payne - HP - $17 - Mideast acquisition?

4. Host - HST - $16 - great properties

5. Ashland - ASH - $54 - confusing

6. Magnite - MGNI - $24 - does this work?

7. John Wiley & Son - WLY - $39 - big AI play?

8. Ball Corp - BALL - $54 - boring

9. Ziff Davis - ZD - $36 - confusing

10. Inter. Flavors - IFF - $66 - forever restructuring

11. Advance Auto - AAP - $57 - old locations?

12. Trade Desk - TD - $51 - confusing

13. Huntsman - HUN - $10 - leveraged

14. Universal - UVV - $53 - tobacco

15. Peabody Energy - BTU - $18 - doing a big deal

16. Walt Disney - DIS - $116 - is streaming getting better?

17. Howard Hughes - HHH - $73 - confusing

18. Phillips 66 - PSX - $123 - West coast issues

19. Cavco - CVCO - $480 - neat company, manufactured home retailer

20. Certara - CERT - 11 - controversial

21. Warrior Met Coal - WCC - $62 - steel play

22. Core & Main - CNM - $65 - 143 - very well executed strategy

23. American Water - AWK - $141 - at some price

Technology

1. Teradyne - TER - $112 - big market share

2. Entegris - ENTG - $79 - lots of value guys buying?

3. Adobe - ADBE - $349 - small business play?

4. Qualcomm - QCOM - $158 - very confusing

5. MKS Instruments - MKSI - $103 - love their technology, leveraged

6. Amkor - AMKR - $25 - neat packager

7. Rogers - ROG - $77 - turned down $200+, new management

Health Care

1. Avantor - AVTR - $13 - big Barrow position

2. Smith & Nephew - SNN - $37 - well executed

3. Revvity - RVTY - $89 - China issues

4. Henry Schein - HSIC - $68 - solid but boring

5. Baxter - BAX - $24 - not too smart

6. West Pharma - WST - $246 - top packaging player

7. Astrana - ASTH - $30 - great concept

8. Azenta - AZTA - $30 - great concept

Financial

1. MidwestOne - MOFG - $29 - someday I really will do the small banks

2. Moelis - MC - $74 - neat company

3. Brown & Brown - BRO - $95 - making a big acquisition

4. Lincoln National - life insurance - LNN - $41 - running away?

5. Principal Financial - PFG - $78 - boring but solid

6. Renaissance Re - RNR - $241 - difficult to understand

7. Cullen Frost - CFR - $125 - by far my favorite regional

8. FirstCash - FCFS - $139 - great operator, hate the furniture business

9. Chubb - CB - $275 - at some price

10. Lazard - LAZ - $55 - great investment banking

11. Jefferies - JEF - $62 - investment banking?