Research & Insights
Methodology deep-dives, rating shifts, and data-driven market commentary from the MOATEY research team.
Apple represented 93% of Cirrus Logic's latest quarterly sales. Learn how customer concentration affects bargaining power, resilience and valuation.
MOATEY Team
13 min read
Hims & Hers grew Q3 revenue 49%, but subscribers rose 13% and gross margin fell 17 points. Acquisitions and treatment mix complicate the growth story.
Asset turnover shows how much revenue a company generates from its assets. Learn the formula, why margins matter, and when a high ratio misleads.
Figma's Q3 revenue grew 43%, yet adjusted gross margin fell from 86% to 82%. AI adoption is accelerating, but serving that usage has a cost.
Base rates show how often similar companies achieved a forecast outcome. Learn to choose a reference class, avoid bias and test growth assumptions in valuation.
Duke Energy's $103B investment plan could expand its regulated asset base, but new earnings depend on approvals, financing and when customers begin using power.
Microsoft ended September with $69.6B in unearned revenue. Learn why upfront billings, reported sales and future service obligations are not the same.
Eaton's electrical backlog grew 46%, while book-to-bill stayed at 1.2. Strong orders signal demand, but execution and cash flow determine value.
Anchoring bias can make investors cling to purchase prices or old highs. Learn how to reassess stocks using fresh evidence, valuation and risk.
ADP earned $329M in Q1 interest on client funds, up 15%. Learn how payroll float, investment yields and restricted balances affect business economics.
Owner earnings estimate cash a business could generate after maintaining its operations. Learn the formula, key adjustments and differences from free cash flow.
Hilton has 1.4 million rooms in its system, but only 14,881 sit in its ownership segment. Its latest results show how hotel fees drive an asset-light model.
Berkshire ended 2025 with $85.6B in net deferred tax liabilities. Learn why recorded tax obligations differ from cash taxes and what investors should assess.
PayPal processed $487.1B in payments in Q3, but transaction margin dollars rose only 2%. The gap shows why payment volume and economic value are different.
Interest coverage compares operating earnings with interest costs. Learn the formula, why a high ratio can mislead, and what else investors should check.
American Express's credit provisions fell 23% even as card write-offs rose. Learn why reserve releases and realized losses tell different stories.
Capital allocation shapes long-term shareholder returns. Learn how to evaluate reinvestment, acquisitions, buybacks, dividends and debt repayment.
Travelers reported an 86.8% combined ratio, yet its underlying ratio edged higher. Reserve releases and catastrophe losses explain why the difference matters.
Chipotle had no credit-line borrowings but reported $5.42B in lease liabilities. Learn why rent commitments matter for debt analysis and valuation.
3M reported $1.2 billion of adjusted free cash flow in Q3, but only $486 million of operating cash flow. The $967 million adjustment deserves a closer look.
Retained earnings track profits kept in a business, not cash in the bank. Learn how dividends, reinvestment and accounting affect the balance.
ASML generated €3.3B from service and upgrades in Q3 2026. Its installed base shows why an equipment maker's economics extend beyond selling new machines.
Market cap values common equity; enterprise value adjusts for debt, cash and other claims. Learn how to compare them without confusing price with value.
Schwab added $248.3 billion in client assets in Q3, mostly from net new money. In Q2, market gains dominated. The distinction matters for investors.
Alphabet's GOOGL and GOOG shares have different voting rights. Learn how dual-class structures separate economic ownership from shareholder control.
Domino's Q3 operating profit rose 8.3% even as U.S. same-store sales grew just 0.3%. The real test is whether franchisees share in the improvement.
The cash conversion cycle shows how inventory, customer payments and supplier terms shape a company's funding needs. Learn the formula and its limits.
Humana says 95% of Medicare Advantage members are in four-star-plus plans for 2027. The ratings affect 2028 bonus payments, not current profits.
A reverse DCF starts with the stock price and works backward to reveal the cash-flow growth it requires. Learn how to test those expectations and assumptions.
Why can some companies protect high returns for decades while competitors struggle to catch up? Learn the major types of economic moats, how they work, how to recognize them, and when a competitive advantage may be weaker than it appears.
Costco generated $5.9 billion in membership fees with merchandise gross margins near 11%. Its 2026 filing shows why thin retail margins can be a strength.
Amazon grew Q2 revenue 20%, but AWS generated most operating profit. Segment mix shows why consolidated growth can hide very different economics.
Option Care Health agreed to a $32.05 buyout at a 37% premium. MOATEY shows why a better outcome for owners can mean worse risk/reward for new buyers.
Stock-based compensation does not use cash today, but shareholders still bear an economic cost through ownership dilution and future claims on value.
FactSet retains more than 95% of annual subscription value, but organic ASV grew 7%. Retention protects the revenue base; it does not tell you how quickly the business is expanding.
Nike's Direct revenue fell 8% while wholesale slipped 1%. The quarter shows why channel mix can improve distribution without proving demand has recovered.
Tokyo Electron's 5-for-1 split lowers its share price, not its business value. Learn what stock splits change and how to keep valuation comparable.
Concentrix posted record Q3 cash flow alongside a $1.05 billion goodwill impairment. The contrast shows why non-cash write-downs still matter.
Capital expenditure can either maintain the business you already own or fund the business management hopes to build. Understanding the difference changes how investors interpret free cash flow, reinvestment and business quality.
Costco reported $6.75 of Q4 EPS, but $0.15 came from a non-recurring tariff-refund benefit. The quarter remained strong after removing it, which is exactly why investors should separate reported earnings from recurring earning power.
An economic moat is more than a strong brand, high margin or leading market share. Learn how long-term investors can identify durable competitive advantage, test whether it is real and avoid mistaking temporary success for a moat.
H.B. Fuller grew organic revenue while volumes declined. The quarter shows why investors should separate higher prices from genuine pricing power before judging the quality of growth.
Ciena is targeting roughly 30% annual revenue growth through 2029, alongside major margin expansion. Those targets are useful evidence, but they are not yet results. Long-term investors should treat management guidance as a scenario to test rather than a forecast to automatically accept.
Quest Diagnostics is growing, but preliminary Medicare reimbursement cuts expose a different risk. A business can have scale and demand without controlling the price paid by one of its most important customers.
Revenue and earnings growth do not automatically create value. The important question is whether a company earns a return on new capital that exceeds the cost of that capital.
Virbac reported 7.4% first-half growth at constant exchange rates but only 4.0% reported growth. Both numbers are useful. Investors need to understand what each one removes, and what it leaves behind.
Reported profit does not always tell you how durable a company's economics are. Earnings quality helps investors judge whether profits are supported by cash flow, sensible accruals and repeatable business performance.
Lennar is building homes faster and at lower cost, yet margins remain under pressure. The tension shows why operational efficiency and economic improvement are not the same thing.
Gross margin shows the economics of what a company sells. Operating margin shows what remains after running the business. Understanding the gap between them can reveal more than either number alone.
Adobe's AI-first ARR grew more than 150% in Q3, yet total ARR grew 11.2%. Both numbers can be true. The denominator tells investors which one matters most to the business today.
A high return on equity can indicate an excellent business, but it can also result from leverage or a very small equity base. The useful question is not only how high ROE is, but what created it.
Oracle's AI infrastructure revenue grew 121% and remaining performance obligations reached $664 billion. Yet free cash flow was negative $5 billion. Strong demand and attractive cash economics are not the same thing.
Stock fundamental analysis is more than checking revenue growth or a low P/E ratio. A long-term investor needs to understand growth, financial health, management and competitive advantage before deciding what a business is worth.
One earnings update can trigger several MOATEY Events at once. Navan shows why investors should read those changes as a connected evidence trail, not count them as independent signals.
Same-store sales are useful, but they do not tell investors whether growth came from traffic, pricing, mix or new locations. Chili's recent performance shows why restaurant growth needs to be unpacked before it is extrapolated.
Pernod Ricard improved free cash flow and cash conversion in FY26 even as sales and profit weakened. MOATEY shows why better cash generation does not automatically mean stronger business economics.
Broadcom’s latest quarter shows how profits can grow faster than revenue. Operating leverage can be powerful, but investors still need to understand what is actually creating it.
Campbell’s cut its dividend 36% to accelerate debt reduction even as MOATEY’s long-term free-cash-flow measure improved. It is a useful reminder that dividend safety depends on more than cash generation alone.
A Fast Grower, Stalwart and Cyclical company should not be judged with the same checklist. MOATEY classifications help investors understand what kind of business they are analyzing before deciding what the numbers actually mean.
Revenue growth is only one part of a company's growth profile. GitLab shows why strong top-line expansion can coexist with much weaker evidence elsewhere.
A share buyback sounds shareholder-friendly, but the headline amount tells only part of the story. Reddit shows why investors should track net dilution, stock compensation, repurchase price and the per-share result.
Reddit has entered the S&P 500 after another quarter of exceptional growth. MOATEY still sees limited economic-moat evidence. Market recognition and durable competitive advantage are two different things.
WiseTech's FY26 revenue rose 79%, but the headline does not tell the whole growth story. The source of growth, the capital required and the economics underneath it matter just as much.
CrowdStrike just reported record quarterly free cash flow, yet MOATEY's five-year free-cash-flow growth measure moved lower. The contrast shows why investors should separate a strong quarter from a durable long-term trend.
Financial health matters, but a strong balance sheet does not automatically make a company a strong investment. Costco and Ford show why Financial Health, Management, business quality and Valuation need to remain separate questions.
A MOATEY risk flag identifies a specific issue that deserves attention. It is not a buy, sell or all-clear signal. Best Buy shows why every risk event needs to be read alongside the wider framework.
A rebound in sales, margins and cash flow can look like growth without proving that a business has entered a durable growth phase. Estée Lauder shows why cyclical stocks require a different analytical lens.
DICK'S Sporting Goods fell 30.7% after cutting its outlook. The business did not suddenly improve, but the price fell faster than MOATEY's estimate of value. That distinction matters.
A large margin of safety usually looks reassuring. But when the gap between price and estimated value becomes extreme, the better question may be whether the valuation itself deserves more scrutiny.
Nvidia enters another earnings week with exceptional growth and unusually strong fundamentals. The harder investment question is not whether the business is good, but how much future success is already reflected in the valuation.
A MOATEY rating summarizes the current long-term risk/reward assessment of a company, but the label alone never tells the whole story. Zoetis shows why investors should look at what changed underneath the rating.
