Motley Fool Money - High Fashion, Hard Seltzer, and the Business of Football

Episode Date: September 10, 2021

Lululemon shares hit an all-time high on earnings. Dave & Buster’s delivers a surprise. Boston Beer falls on sluggish seltzer sales. And fintech company Affirm soars on strong revenue growth and an Amazon partnership. Motley Fool analysts Emily Flippen and Jason Moser discuss those stories and talk about the latest from RH, Coupa Software, Paypal, and Caseys General Stores. Our analysts share a couple of investment ideas on their radar: C3AI and Allbirds. Plus, Villanova sports law professor Andrew Brandt talks about the business of football and the future of sports betting. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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If you're 45 or older and at average risk, ask your health care provider about the KoloGard test. KoloGard is available by prescription only. Learn more or request a prescription today at KolaGar.com slash screen. Everybody needs money. That's why they call it money. From Fool Global Headquarters, this is Motley Fool Money Radio Show. I'm Ron Gross sitting in for Chris Hill. Joining me today are senior analysts Emily Flippin and Jason Mozer. Fools, how you doing? Hey, hey.

Hey, Ron. Good to see you, Fools. Earning season isn't over yet. Today we're going to talk Fintech, home. furnishings and video games, but we begin with something you'll never see me wearing, and that is a yoga pants. On Thursday, Lulu Lemon reported results that handily beat expectations, and the shares were up more than 10%. Emily, results look strong. Should investors be concerned about the supply chain issue they talked about, or is that just a temporary problem? Supply chain issues are completely overblown for Lulu Lemon, not just because they're impacting all,

manufacturers across numerous industries, but because Ludo Leman is in the envial position of being able to pass along most of these costs to customers, which means they've mitigated their supply delays with things like more air fright. They can afford to lose some points on their gross margins over the short term in comparison to their competitors. And moreover, their clothing tends to be less seasonal than other retailers, which means they generally have less inventory risk, and whose stable offerings throughout the year does also insulate them from the supply disruption. But Ron, you should really never say never when it comes to yoga pants. Because if you look at this quarter for a Ludo Lemon, a bright spot was actually their

men's apparel. It grew faster than their women's apparel on a two-year basis. Total revenue is at more than 60% year over year. I guess apparently we're not all done pretending like we're working out. I imagine there are some people out there who are putting their sports bras on for Lidlum and jumping on their Peloton or jumping in front of their mirror. But I think even more people are just putting on their comfy Lululmin clothing because they adopted this very comfortable lifestyle from the pandemic that they're pulling over into their daily

lives even as they go back to the office. All right. I will keep an open mind. So companies like Lulu, they've obviously benefited from work, from home, from exercise at home. Let's have some fun for both of you. What's one current trend that you think stays or goes away post-COVID? Emily?

For me, I think it's our consumption trend. I think what stood out to me about over the past few years in comparison to how American shop is just how willing we are to still spend money even though we're not going anywhere. And that's a trend that I don't see changing. The average American bought over 68 pieces of clothing every year. I mean, 68 pieces of clothing. That's incredible. And that largely didn't change as a result of 2020.

So I don't expect for that to change in the 20. 21 either. Jason? Yeah, I do think that the delivery phenomenon is here to stay. I mean, much as Amazon really gave us as consumers a new way to value our time. I think this is just sort of the next step in that evolution. The pandemic really more or less hastened it, but I think folks are just realizing there are other ways to utilize their time. And if something as simple as grocery delivery or food delivery can help free up a little bit of bit more time. I think consumers just value time today more so than we ever have because we have so many more options. So I think that food and the delivery phenomenon, I think, is here to

stay. So I'll get a big juicy burger delivered and then I'll pretend to hop on my peloton. That should work perfectly. Last week, shares of Buy Now Pay Later company, a firm shot higher when the company announced a new trial with Amazon. On Friday, shares were up another 25%, as investors seem very pleased with the company's fiscal 2022 guidance. Jason, guidance was strong, but have the quarter look to you. Yeah, guidance was strong, but when you look at the quarter, a total revenue was up 71% from a year ago, which is clearly very strong. And it turns out that when you saddle up with companies like Shopify and Amazon, the market kind of likes that, Ron. And all kidding aside, though, I mean, these relationships really do matter a lot. I think

they address one of the key risks in customer concentration with the firm, right? They really were levered to Peloton in a big way for a long time. So they're doing exactly what investors have been hoping for in diversifying their customer base. Now, it's not the magic bullet, so to speak, but to my mind, it was paramount for this business to be able to have a shot at real growth. And to just put these numbers into context, for the nine months ended March 31, 2021, approximately 31% percent of a firm's total revenue was driven by Peloton. Now, that number was actually up from a year ago as well. So these relationships are going to be very valuable as they should help ultimately bring that number down, which is obviously very good. On Wednesday, RH, the

company formerly known as Restoration Hardware, beat expectations of both the top and bottom lines. Emily, RH shares are up a whopping 2,300 percent over the past five years, and the strong operating results continue. This is just a home furnishing retailer, right? No. Anytime a business goes through a name change, you know they're trying to reinvent themselves. It's like going through a bad breakup and getting a different haircut or dyeing your hair. This is what restoration hardware is doing. For so long, they've been known as a home furnishing retailer, luxury retailer, but home furnishings nonetheless. And CEO Gary Friedman has made a really concerted effort over the past few years to completely re-endish. invent this business. And I and many investors have been skeptics, I suppose, of their ability

to become more of a lifestyle brand as opposed to a home furnishing retailer, but they are certainly proving it out. The opportunity is still very much ahead of this business, despite its meteoric stock price rise. They're building an entire ecosystem around what it means to be a luxury brand. In fact, they even announced over this recent quarter that they're launching a platform called The World of RH, which really acts as a portal to brand, which really acts as a portal to brand and style advice, but more importantly, as a funnel into their media arm, that they're now partnering with lifestyle and luxury influencers to create content for brand leaders. And then they're getting into things like the retail and real estate market.

So they're actually purchasing real estate, things like hotels, homes, apartments, condos, selling them to people. They're fully furnished, already made move-in ready. The idea is to serve consumers who have more money than they have. time. I'm not quite sure what success looks like for this business, but it is certainly an understatement to call it simply a home furnishings retailer. And has their loyalty program been a big part of this, or is that too old school for this innovative company?

It's a little old school, Ron. I have to admit, I think what's more important for them moving forward is probably their galleries. This isn't your Pier 1 imports where you walk in and you're looking to make a purchase. It's more like you're walking into a restoration hardware gallery, or an RH gallery, as I should say, and you're conceptualizing your space. It has much less to do with loyalty and much more to do with lifestyle. Earlier this week, Cupa Software posted second quarter results that beat expectations and the stock jumped. But as the week were on, shares gave back most of their gain. Jason, what gives? Good report or not so good report?

I think it was a good report, but it had its fair share of caution. I mean, the quarter itself was strong. They grew the top line, 42% from a year ago, on subscription revenue, which makes up the overwhelming majority of the business was up 40%. It's been a challenging year from a stock perspective. Shares are down around 25%. But I think a lot of this really is valuation-related. Right now, the stock is actually valued around 53 times gross profit, around 30 times sales. But when you listen to the call, they mentioned something on the call that I think gave investors maybe a little pause. They noted that while they're excited about the prospects for the back half of the year, they continue to incorporate what they call a heightened level of caution in

their outlook. So, that's something that investors just need to keep in the back of their minds. It really is all about the future. But Cooper remains a strong business and a very attractive market opportunity helping businesses manage their spending better. Roughly $2.8 trillion in cumulative spend under management that Cooper recorded over this past quarter. So, yeah, I'd say a strong quarter, probably a little bit more valuation related, a little bit of a cautious outlook. It's understandable. So, Cooper, not afraid to make an acquisition. Management stated that their long-term compounding growth profile of 30 percent hasn't changed.

Do you think they need to continue to make acquisitions to get there, or can they do that organically? I think they could probably do it organically from this point, but it's worth noting that competition is heating up in the space. We saw recently here, another company we talk about on the show, Bill.com. They recently made an acquisition of a company called DiviPay, which pursues that same market opportunity in business spend management. And we've seen Bill.com really performing very well also. So this is not a market that Kupa can just own at its own leisure, right? They will have to keep those competitive fires burning, so to speak.

But as I said, it's a massive market opportunity. And oftentimes with things like that, you're going to have more than one. So I suspect Coupe is in a pretty good place. Coming up, we'll grab a hard seltzer and play some video games. You're listening to Motley Fool Money. Welcome back to Motley Fool Money Run Gross sitting in for Chris Hill. Earlier in the week, PayPal announced that it would buy Japanese Buy Now and Pay Later startup Pady for about $2.7 billion.

And Jason, as we saw with the Affirm Amazon deal and the Square after pay acquisition, Buy Now, I'll pay later is certainly hot. Does this even move the needle for PayPal, though? Perhaps. There absolutely is the potential in the long run. No question there. It's a smaller acquisition, though, in the context of this market. But Japan is a $5 trillion economy with a population of around 125 million people, and it's the third largest e-commerce market in the world. Online shopping volume is more than tripled over the last 10 years to around $200 billion, and that's the market really that Pady is playing into. It's got this two-sided network with more than 6 million registered users, more than 700,000 merchants.

It's already accepted at the top 10 Japanese marketplaces. So I think it's an interesting point to note that while digital commerce and cashless transactions are growing still in Japan, around 70 percent of all purchases are paid for in cash, interestingly enough. So they, as a culture, they tend to steer away from those heavy debt loads. We don't want to see that number come down over time for this to really move the needle, I think. But all in all, I do understand the attraction there. It gives PayPal entry into a new market where it's probably easier in this case for them to buy it as opposed to building it.

Casey's General Stores reported fiscal first quarter results that included a slight decline in earnings, but the company did increase its dividend for the 22nd year in a row. Emily, what stood out to you in this report? Was it strong or not so strong? Ron, this was an excellent quarter for Casey's General Stores. Do you think it's an overstay? If I were to say that Casey's is the best publicly traded convenience store on the market today? Probably not, but I can't really seem to pull another competitive name out on top of my head. Right, exactly. They're private, the ones I would think of. Yeah. There's no other publicly traded convenience stores that can come across to people's mind because,

in general, convenience stores aren't a particularly lucrative place to invest. And that's because they're heavily impacted by things that are outside of their control, like gas and travel demand. So while investors may look at this quarter and say, wow, revenue was up 50% year over year, it's a bit of a meaningless metric when it comes to Casey's because it's so heavily impacted by gas prices and travel demand, both of which were extremely low this time last year. That being said, earnings were a bright spot. They were a tad below their all-time high earnings per share, but still very high for Casey's, largely due to those costs, again, coming down as a result of the pandemic.

What stood out to me, though, was their private label sales. It rose to 4.4% in the quarter. Management has the lofty goal of getting that to 10% over the next few years to match the industry average. If they're able to do that, that can meaningfully impact their gross margins, which would be a really interesting thing to see evolve for Casey's. But as great as this quarter was, I still can't feel like buying Casey's stock is just kind of like settling for second best.

I know Wawa, Sheets, Buckees, the Texas Buckees. They aren't publicly traded, but if they were publicly traded, I can't help but think they would just eat Casey's lunch. In this world of tech and innovation, it's hard to get your money invested in a convenience store or a general store like this. Now, they've had quite a success, and it's been a very strong business over the years, but it would seem to me that perhaps there's better places for one's money. Certainly.

Dave and Busters reported second quarter results. easily beat expectations, sending the shares higher. Jason, comps are tough here because of what COVID did to 2020, obviously. How do results look if we compare it to 2019? Yeah, that's a good question. I'm glad you asked that because you're right. Coms to 2020 are more or less meaningless. If we compare it to 2019, you get a better picture in revenue of around $378 million compared to $345 million in 2019. And comps were up 3.6% over that same same period. So, it's been a bit of a roller coaster year so far, but I mean, what a difference a year it does make. If you remember, just a year ago, they were using the phrase going

concern in their 10-Q. There were questions at the time as to whether they could actually survive the pandemic, and the market was, I mean, really, really punishing the stock for it. But thankfully, I think for investors, I think they're past that. That said, I mean, it is a business with some fundamental challenges. Management will need to take on. But the good news is it does really seem like they are meeting that challenge. Quick question for both of you. If you're the CEO of Dave and Busters, you've newly become the CEO of Dave and Busters, what's one thing you do to improve the business? Emily? They need better advertisements. They need a facelift. They need to change their image in the eye of the public because right now, I think people write off

Dave and Busters despite the investments they made in technology over the years. Jason? Yeah, you know, after reading through the call, they're kind of doing what I was hoping they would do and focusing a little bit more on things like sports and maybe they'll be able to incorporate sporting events, some type of sport betting dynamic into the business there. They just inked a partnership with Pardon My Take, you know, Barstool Sports and Pardon My Take, that podcast from Barstool Sports. So you've got Big Cat and those guys are going to be showing up at Dave and Busters for some live-streamed events. I mean, I think that'll be a lot of fun. It'll attract a new market, the demographic there that should help grow traffic over time. When I was last in the Dave and Busters, let's call it 10 years ago,

I had a barbecue bourbon chicken that was quite tasty. So if I'm CEO, I'm doubling down on barbecue bourbon chicken all the way. Good stuff. On Wednesday, Boston Beer withdrew the guidance it gave in July, saying it had overstated demand for its hard seltzer business. Emily, is the hard seltzer trend over? Please say yes. I hope it's not. As a hard-seltzer aficionado myself, I know that my consumption of truly or white claw, all the numerous other hard-seltzer brands, has not necessarily decreased

over the past year. But I will say there are a lot of people that are no longer buying their hard-seltzers in stores. They're going out with friends where the distribution for hard-seltzers tends to be much smaller. So for that reason, Boston Beer did withdraw that prior guidance. It's not great to see a withdrawal of guidance so soon after they issued that guidance, which was already much lower than the guidance that they had issued even earlier this year. So the trend is certainly downward. But I will say this, despite what happens with hard cells or despite how fragmented the industry is, I do think that Boston Beer has a lot of opportunities ahead of it. They have reinvented themselves as a business. They're not afraid to

move fast. They have great distribution. They've made smart partnerships. And I think they're well prepared for whatever the next best thing is. Do you think there are just too many hard sales or brands out there? If so, do some just go away? Or is there a chance to be consolidation here? Or is there really no need for consolidation? Because they're all basically the same thing. As a consumer, I think there's never too many brands. But I do think your point as an investor, I don't think that we'll see the number of brands sustain themselves over the long term that we see today. But the big ones, the ones by ABM-B, B, Boston Beer, I expect those have long-term staying power.

Jason, you're a golfer. You're out on the golf course. You crack open an ice cold truly. God, no, Ron. Never. I never had a hard seltzer on my life. I would happily crack open to Samuel Adams October Fest, or maybe this new fest beer that they've got,

but not good on the seltzer. Nice. All right, fools. We'll see you a little bit later in the show. Up next, a conversation with Andrew Brandt, executive director at the Morad Center of Sports. Sports Law at Villanova University on why the NFL is the undisputed king of sports in America. Stay right here. You're listening to Motley Fool Money. This old smoke-filled bar is something I'm not used to. I gave up my...

Satisfied. And I just called to let you know. It's not much, but I feel... Welcome back to Motley Full Money. I'm Ron Gross. Earlier this week, Chris Hill interviewed Andrew Brandt, a Sports Illustrated columnist, host of the Business of Sports Podcast, and the executive director at the Morad Center of Sports Law at Villanova University. They discussed the rise of sports betting and whether it's a zero-sum industry, the current group of rookie quarterbacks, and why the NFL is the

undisputed king of sports in America. The NFL is more popular than ever. When you think about the threat of COVID last year and what that had the potential to do to the season. You go back earlier than that, players kneeling. It's going to turn off the fans. It seems like every year or two, someone is eager to write the obituary of the NFL. Are you at all surprised that it is still, as you put it recently in one of your columns, the undisputed king of sports in the United States? Yeah, Chris, I'm not surprised at all. I mean, And I think, as you mentioned, it seems like every year there's something that's threatening the continued prosperity of the NFL as King of the Mountain when it comes to sports.

Like you mentioned, one year was the kneeling and protests and social causes, and there was a faction that said that's going to be the death of the NFL. Another year was concussions and how brutal the sport is and that's going to take people away from playing the game and thereby losing interest in the game and young people aren't going to play contact football. And then in the past year and a half, of course, it's been COVID and the fact that they're going through all these protocols and people are going to get turned away. It's as strong as ever. In fact, valuations came out there through the roof for all the teams done by Forbes every year. And that's no surprise. Because the one thing that the NFL has that

no other league comes close to is the product on television. It just continues to soar in ratings. and even if ratings are off a dip, a little dip, who cares? It's the most powerful programming on television. It's the only appointment television, really, for a lot of people, including myself. And they just did, they, the NFL owners, just completed $110 billion of television contracts. That's right, with a B, $110 billion over the next 12 years. And that hasn't even kicked in. it won't until 2023. So you can just talk about whatever you want to talk about with the NFL. It's there. And my last comment is on ratings. Ratings don't really matter. Like, let's say we were in week five and something happens and the ratings are really down for the NFL. Who cares?

They just inked $110 billion for the next 12 years. So if ratings are terrible, ratings are great, it's all locked in right now. One of the things you and I have talked about over the years is the issue around health and safety. Obviously, COVID and the role of COVID and which players are vaccinated or unvaccinated. That's a big topic this preseason. But somewhat overlooked in the conversation about player health and safety is the fact that the schedule has been expanded to 17 games. For more than 40 years, it was a 16 game schedule. Now it's 17 games. I don't think it's going to be another 40 years before they look to expand it to 18 games. And I get that more games means more money, but do you think it's good business in the long run?

Yeah, I mean, I think it's always good business for the NFL to have more inventory and more product. From the player's side, of course not. They're giving up more inventory, more of their bodies, more of their career, extra game. If you can sort of layer it on, that means they've potentially lost of a year of their lifetime in football. I was very critical a year ago, Chris, on the collective bargaining agreement when the NFL players gave away that precious asset of the 17th game. Now, if they were getting some massive increase in overall revenues, or they were getting some kind of big, I don't know, deal that they were going to live off of for the next 12 years of their CBA, great, but they didn't get enough in return to give up this

massive give of the 17th game. It's happened. And as you indicated, 40 years of 16 games, I think it's an obvious statement, but it needs to be said. We're not going back. Okay? We will never, ever see a 16-game schedule in the NFL. Again, we may see an 18-game schedule in 10 years, but now we're at 17. And no one knows it's new uncharted territory, how it's going to look this year, what's going to happen.

The attrition we can expect will be further. So if we have, pick a number, 25% of the league gets injured over a 16-game season, maybe it's 29% or 31% or 33% of the league gets hurt over 17 games season. And by hurt, I mean something that will keep a player out of a game or maybe even three games. So yeah, at one point, Chris, we heard, well, we're going to do 17, but players can only play 16. Well, that went by the way, side pretty quick. So players will play if they're able, all 17. And you know, again, the toll will increase year over year.

So we're in uncharted territory. Here we go, 17 games for the first time ever. Another big storyline during the preseason is something that kind of goes against what fans have heard for decades about rookie quarterbacks. They need time to adjust to the speed of the game. They should take a year or two, be on the sidelines, hold a clipboard, backup a veteran. And yet we've got three teams that are going to be starting rookie quarterbacks week one. I get the sense that you like this move? I do, but let me give my full disclosure, because I know everyone will come back at me. Yes, it was the Packers 10 years. Yes, I went through this, but they're different. Okay? Let's not put the Packers in this discussion, because in each case, 15 years

ago and now, the backup first round quarterback is playing behind a Bonafide First Ballot Hall of Fame quarterback. So let's put that aside. Now take the other five teams this year that that have the first round quarterback. As you mentioned, Jacksonville, Trevor Lawrence, right away. Jets, Zach Wilson, right away and just found out last week, Patriots, Mac Jones over Cam Newton, right away. The two holdouts are the bears who drafted Justin Fields are now going to go with Andy Dalton and the 49ers who drafted Trey Lansing gave up a ton to get them, still going with Jimmy Garoppolo. I think that's not optimal because I think a couple things. Number one, Garoppolo and Dalton are not your future.

These other players are. So in my words, get on with it. Just get on with it. And number two, you know these guys are going to replace them, whether it's going to be game three, game four, game five, game seven, game nine. It's going to happen. So what are we doing? If I'm talking to the Niners or the Bears, what are we doing? this idea of sit and learn, what are they learning by sitting? So my point is you're going to have growing pains with first round quarterbacks, with any rookie quarterback. Why not get it over in week one through five instead of weeks five through ten? That's my feeling. And my prediction, as you know, Chris, is I'm going to stake a claim not only by Halloween, but by the end of September, all five will be starting.

That's my claim. Well, and if you're the television networks, you have to be pretty happy about the youth movement for NFL quarterbacks. I mean, it's a glamour position. Drew Breeze just retired. Tom Brady, I don't know, at some point in the far future, he'll retire. And this crop of rookie quarterbacks increases the likelihood that new stars come into the league. Yeah.

And on that point, this is another problem for the 49ers and bears, Chris, because, you know, you know as well as I do. Everyone listening knows the Bears starter, the 49ers starter, throw a bad interception, have a bad game. The drumbeat is going to be loud, right? Get the rookie in because they're the most popular players on that team right now from a fan standpoint. And these five quarterbacks, like you mentioned, are bringing a tremendous amount of buzz to the league. They were the most watched players in preseason. I think that's safe to say. And yes, that's great because, again, Brady will move on, Breeze moved on, you know, Rathesberger will move on, we just had Philip Rivers move on. And, you know, a side note to all this,

I think Deshawn Watson and Aaron Rogers will be playing for different teams in 2022. So we'll have new young quarterbacks playing for those existing teams. Anyone who is consuming any type of information about the NFL is almost certainly running into advertising from some business in the sports betting industry. It's something you and I have talked about before. And speaking of drum beats, I mean, it only gets louder and louder. It's amazing to me the incentives that are being thrown out in commercials on television, for, you know, just to get people into their system. Does the money surprise you at all?

Two-part question. One, does the money surprise you at all? And then two, do you look at sports betting as more of a zero-sum game than other industries? Because it does seem like something where once you've got your betting app that you're familiar with, you're probably just sticking with the one. I don't know where to start here, Chris, because there's no area of a sports law, which I teach, or sports business, which I teach, that has undergone as big a sea change as this, none. Because you and I were talking years ago, it was the complete taboo. It was pick a story. It was Tony Romo not allowed to go to a fantasy football convention in Vegas simply because it was attached to a casino, the Sands in Las Vegas. It was, you know, the suspensions and kicked out

of Pete Rose, of Alex Karras, of Paul Horning. It was, I mean, just name it. What changed? Well, one thing changed in 2015 was the market share embrace of fantasy, where two startups, which essentially they were, Fanduel and Draft Kings, bombarded the NFL with advertising, which again was accepted and embraced because it was fantasy. It was soft gambling, right? It's like, pick your mashup team and have fun with it. Well, then the courts got involved because the NFL, NBA, and NCAA, NHL, NBA, they were all fighting against this because of integrity. We know that word. And they lost. Seven years in court fighting New Jersey who wanted to implement sports betting, they lost. The leagues lost. I'll never forget the day, May 14th, 2018, and the floodgates

opened. So now we're at 23 states plus the District of Columbia, not only legalized sports betting, but having, like you said, mobile, and we're going to have more in-stadium sports facilities, sports books. We have it in Washington, in the arena. We're going to have, we have it at MetLife, although it's at the Meadowlands next door to the stadium. It's happening. Arizona and Glendale, they have it in the stadium. So it's almost, it's, it's. It's a lot. It's, it's, it's, it's a lot of, it. It's, it's, it's, It's dear rigor now for teams to have an embrace of sports betting. The zero sum is a great question because now there's a gold rush, a land rush, get in, and everybody's doing partnerships, Barstool with Pan Gaming and Fox Sports with Points Bet.

ESPN's looking for their partner. And once that matches up, yeah, then there's going to be no one left. So you're right. We're in this golden age of sports betting. We're in a couple years, there's no more land to be mined. And everybody's matching up. I think the biggest point is on that day I referenced when the Supreme Court legalized sports betting, there was a statement from Mark Cuban who's always prescient in these matters,

the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, who said this will double, use the word double, the value of sports franchises. We're not there yet. But if we look at sports value franchises in 2018 and maybe in five more years, it may have doubled. And sports betting may have been a big part of that. Everyone's looking for new revenue sources. This is a big one. Last thing.

And then I'll let you go. And this is local to where I am and where you grew up. The Washington football team has reportedly narrowed down its list of new names. Armada, brigade, commanders, defenders, presidents. Red hogs, red wolves, and then just sticking with Washington football team. Is there some business upside to changing it? Because as you and I were talking during the break, it seems like they sort of backed into the Washington football team, and people like it a lot more than I think they probably thought.

As we talked about, people didn't like it at the beginning. Then it caught on. It was almost this sort of European soccer lingo kind of cool football team. but no, it seems like they're going to change it. And I think the buzz that Washington football team got, albeit delayed, will happen again. People will be resistant to the new name. People will hate it. There'll be some memes and bad negative tweets, but they will embrace it at some point. And, you know, it's this drumbeat. We keep using that word towards the new name. Now they've released the finalists and people are going to talk about that. It's a good marketing scheme. Listen, I was a diehard fan growing up, and I thought nothing galvanized Washington, D.C., like that team.

And it's gone through some tough times. But it just seems like they got the right thing going there. Jason Wright comes from a finance background, and he's running the team now. Ron Rivera brings credibility right away and integrity to the team. So they're on the upside, and they're in a bad division. They are favored to win by many, that division. So we'll see where, and they have the ultimate survivor of the NFL, Ryan Fitzpatrick as their quarterback. He is the ultimate survivor. And I say that with fondness, because every time he's left for dead in one situation, he emerges as starting for another team. So there we are. They are trying to capitalize on a lot of newness around the team, and we'll see how long it lasts. Appreciate your time, Andrew.

Thanks. I always enjoy it, Chris. Coming up, we'll share some stocks on our radar. you're listening to Motley Fool Money. The clock's running down. The team's losing crew. The young quarterback waits for this. When suddenly it all starts to make sense. He's got all kinds of time. He's got all kinds of time.

All kinds of time. As always, people on this program may have interests in the stocks they talk about, and the Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against. So don't buy your sell stocks based solely on what you hear. Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. Ron Gross here with Emily Flippin' N. Jason Moser. Okay, Fool's, time for some stocks on our radar. And I'll bring in our man, Dan Boyd, for a quick question. Jason Moser, you're up first. What do you got? Yeah, well, a stock I just recently bought myself. Companies called C3AI, the ticker is A-I.

This is an Enterprise AI, artificial intelligence application software company that enables the rapid deployment of enterprise scale AI applications. So it's a unique business, and they take a model-based approach. Developers can rapidly build these AI applications as opposed to having to write the complex and lengthy structured code. They have developed some very strong partnerships along the way. They just announced an alliance with Google Cloud. You look at additional relationships with Amazon Web Services, Baker Hughes, Microsoft, Raytheon, just an interesting business in the technology. And then founder and CEO, Thomas Siebel, also founded Siebel Systems, which was ultimately

acquired by Oracle. He owns about 11% of the company today. Still a young company, still a new business to the market. But I'm encouraged by what they're doing. So I felt compelled to take a position. Dan, I know you've got a question about C3 AI. Come on. Yeah, I don't really know a whole lot about AI stocks.

Big surprise, right? But Jason, would you say that C3 is like a leader in the industry? I think I need to develop an artificial intelligence application so that they can just answer that for you. But in all honesty, yes, I do. I think their novel approach in this model-based system is something that gives them a little bit of an edge. Emily, you're up. What are you looking at? Well, this is mine to lose because I have a fun one for you, Dan. I'm looking at all birds.

And they aren't public yet. But once they go public, their plan is to list on the NASDAQ, under the ticker, bird, which is a great ticker to grab. But they're an environmentally sustainable, direct-to-consumer shoe and apparel business. They have a broad mission to help reverse climate change without us having to sacrifice our sense of fashion. They actually got started in 2014 from a Kickstarter campaign, but they have scaled rapidly. By 2018, they had sold more than one million pairs of shoes, and 50% of revenue comes from repeat customers. So they have some pretty impressive lifetime value. Dan? Okay. So as many people know, I am an

an avid bird watchers. So, when I heard that we were talking about all birds today, I was very excited. And then you tell me, it's a shoe company. Oh, boy. Is there a question in there? Here's what I'll say, Dan. This is an environmentally sustainable company, right? Their mission is priority. They're certified B-Corp, a public benefit corporation. They want to help the birds, right? They want to help the environment. So by buying all birds, you are helping the birds. It's just, you know, One step removed. Dan, do I dare ask if you've got a favorite for your watch list? You know what?

Emily convinced me, Ron. I think I'm going to go with all birds this time. I love birds. I love the environment. So let's do it. Let's go. Emily for the win. Jason Moser, Emily flipping.

Thanks for being here, fools. Thank you. Thanks, Ron. That's going to do it for this week's Motley Fool Money. Our engineer is Dan Boyd. Our producer is Matt Greer. I'm Ron Gross. Thanks for listening.

We'll see you next week.