Behind The Idea

Seeking Alpha
Behind The Idea

On Behind The Idea, Seeking Alpha editors Mike Taylor and Daniel Shvartsman take a closer look at an investment idea published on Seeking Alpha to see what makes for compelling investing analysis. We look at what’s happening with the underlying company, what the author’s case is, how well s/he made that case, and what we can learn from this investment story. We also bring on the authors, top investors, and industry analysts or experts to explore the case further. We hope the breakdowns and discussions are is both timely and evergreen, educational and entertaining for investors.

  1. 11/19/2019

    Behind The Idea #99: Why I'm A Bad Investor

    Over the last two weeks, Mike and Daniel have pitched respective long ideas. This week, we looked backward at mistakes we've made in our investing careers. The theory goes that your investing mistakes also amount to your investing tuition, and that true wisdom is learning from others' mistakes, rather than your own. I can only hope there's something for you as listeners to learn from our mistakes, as broken down on today's podcast. The investments in question date to 2016 and 2017. Mike went long on Gilead Sciences (GILD) based on their scientific prowess and low multiple, and even as his thesis sailed on him with Gilead's acquisition of Kite Biopharma, he couldn't find the exit door. Daniel went long Uniti Group (UNIT), even having concerns about its failure to cover its dividend and what the huge yield portended, let alone the binary risk that was introduced into the stock. We hope there are lessons to be learned from our mistakes. Topics Covered 4:00 - Mike's bad choice - Gilead Sciences (GILD) 6:00 - What was compelling about GILD? 10:45 - At the time of purchase, did you have any concerns? 14:30 - How did the investment play out? 18:30 - When did you realize it wasn't working? 25:00 - What are the lessons learned? 28:00 - Daniel's bad choice - Uniti Group (UNIT) 29:30 - What was your thesis? 38:00 - Specific downside concerns 41:00 - When did you realize it wasn't going well? 55:30 - What lessons did you learn? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1 hr
  2. 10/29/2019

    Behind The Idea #96: Teladoc And The Modern Growth Story

    There are three sorts of stories we've gravitated towards in the past 95 episodes of Behind the Idea: Value traps and/or value plays, the sorts of junk we might invest in. Examples: Cars.com (CARS), AT&T (T), Dell (DELL), Kelloggs (K) from the short side. Growth stories that break our value-oriented brains. Examples: Amazon (AMZN), Shopify (SHOP), Crowdstrike (CRWD), Lyft (LYFT), PagerDuty (PD) from the short side. Battleground stories or news stories. Examples: Boeing (BA), PG&E (PCG), Chipotle (CMG), Trupanion (TRUP). This week we cover Teladoc (TDOC), which falls squarely in categories 2 and 3. The company is a fast grower on the top line, but it's yet to crack break even profitability metrics. We've published many short ideas on the company on Seeking Alpha, but we recently published a PRO+ top idea by Value Alpha that takes the long side. As with many of these stories, there are both exciting things going on and questions raised that deserve a closer look. We break down the long case, and then we raise our questions. Beyond assessing the Teladoc story itself, we also get into what we look for in growth stories like this, and what it means to invest in an execution based story. Topics Covered 3:00 - Assessing the long case 8:15 - Market leadership and the total addressable market story 13:45 - Teladoc's revenue model and Value Alpha's valuation model. 19:00 - Pricing vs. valuation rears its head 22:00 - Teladoc's industry position and is it a real moat? 27:45 - Valuation arbitrage and the messiness in the story 31:00 - What about the short case? 36:30 - The significance of the 'execution-based' story 40:00 - The reliance on acquisitions and the trends in visit fees. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    46 min
3.8
out of 5
74 Ratings

About

On Behind The Idea, Seeking Alpha editors Mike Taylor and Daniel Shvartsman take a closer look at an investment idea published on Seeking Alpha to see what makes for compelling investing analysis. We look at what’s happening with the underlying company, what the author’s case is, how well s/he made that case, and what we can learn from this investment story. We also bring on the authors, top investors, and industry analysts or experts to explore the case further. We hope the breakdowns and discussions are is both timely and evergreen, educational and entertaining for investors.

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