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Friday, August 28, 2026

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@BrokenMoats

Broken Moats on X

??? Two things can be true at the same time. In that you can have a slow down from weak international travel (administration) domestically, weak lower end consumer, glp, and inflation that is dragging down sales. And yet you can continue to invest in new store counts if the economics of your model are intact AND you have the balance sheet to continue to invest in your business. The competitors you cited besides macro have other issues impacting their ability to invest; PTLO has a serious balance sheet issue SG has an economic model problem... *turns out 18$ salads is a tough business*. Mcdonalds increased store openings in 2008 AND 2009 even as SSS growth was slowing every year 06-09....those investments worked out just fine because the model works. $SHAK SSS still going to print solidly positive for the year while most chains won't this year (and thats without the added store count). Shak has issues, all restaurants are tough and tough to scale and Rob and the cfo are far from Mcdonalds level of execution, but at 1x sales and a +20% restaurant margin model with 4m AUV theres a lot more room to the upside then the downside at current levels. I don't think they get to the dream target of 1500 stores, but that would be a 10x from here, whats the downside, at almost 1x current....30% maybe? I'll take that asymmetric set up. (Entered shares today)
@BrokenMoats

Broken Moats on X

Interesting the $AMZN Supply Chain Services announcement has been glossed over by competitor share price action after the initial announcement hit. $UPS has been up virtually everyday for the past 2 weeks + even though they alongside the LTL carriers like $SAIA $XPO are probably the most exposed to competitive pressures or price pressures. Trucking is being supported by heavy admin crackdowns (that will help foster inflation later this year and into next year) and AI demand in areas like flatbed. But LTL and parcel demand is lagging and has relied heavily on price in recent years to compensate for higher costs and volumes....AMZN entrance should pressure both sides for these companies especially domestic players, much less for global routes
@Fierce__beast 1 click

Fierce_beast on X

To me it's a situation where you just need one bad actor to go crazy with compute scale and it practically forces the hand of everyone else to do the same because they are scared if they don't they will lose the race. Or even better, they actually agree that you should go crazy with compute so they are doing it for rational reasons. Here this bad actor may not even be acting in bad faith and they might even be right. Look at OpenAI buying insane amounts of compute early on and many thinking they are insane and shorting stocks like $ORCL but suddenly over the last 2 months now hearing they are servicing their customers better than antrhopic and many people moving to openai.
@ActAccordingly

PAA Research on X

Quick thoughts on the $GOOG raise: 1) Management is old enough to remember when this stock traded at much lower multiples for YEARS, good time to raise capital and it's not that much relative to the market cap. 2) The demands of data center build out/token cost are even more insatiable than we thought (see $HPE, $DELL, or the $NVDA overnight news) 3) Profitability/cash flow could be headed lower in a meaningful way at some point in the not too distant future for the search business. This is the most important take away IMO. Someone explain to me how you take the greatest business model ever created in Search/Adwords where you have 90% share and replace it with LLM's/AEO, while somehow maintaining the same profitability. The structural economics are WORSE and market share is materially worse. Search traffic is DOWN in many categories and that will only get worse from here as consumers engage with #openAI, #claude, #gemini at higher rates. Honestly, I don't know why this isn't the primary narrative around $GOOG currently. I'm sure there are people that will have different perspectives on this, but ask around to people that rely on search. Volumes are down in many areas already.

Investor Letters

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Late August 2026 Random Ramblings

Higher rates could compress equity multiples and raise AI data center lease costs, while UWMC and Cogent raise questions about CEO-driven…

UWMC $2.3B
Yet Another Value Podcast 16 clicks

NCLH or her grandma Saga?

Norwegian Cruise Line’s $15 billion debt and 2026-27 capex delay deleveraging, despite fuel-efficient new ships and stronger projected 2028…

NCLH $7.7B
The Oak Bloke 16 clicks
VSEC · long 2026-05-30

Vse CORP

VSE Corp trades at $185, with a stated $246 fair value and 2027 estimated EV/EBITDA of 15x.

VSEC $6.2B
Value Investors Club 4 clicks
HWKN · short 2026-05-30

Hawkins INC

Hawkins (HWKN) faces margin pressure as cost increases and municipal budget constraints weigh on its water-chemical distribution business.

HWKN $2.5B
Value Investors Club 3 clicks

Late August 2026 Random Ramblings

Higher rates threaten equity multiples and AI data-center economics, while UWMC and Cogent raise questions about CEO-driven capital…

UWMC $2.3B
Yet Another Value Blog 2 clicks

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