Motley Fool Money - Nvidia, Apple, and Eli Lilly: Manufacturing the Future

Episode Date: February 28, 2025

The great buildout for AI and GLP-1 drugs continues. (00:21) Jason Moser and Matt Argersinger discuss: - How Nvidia continues to deliver in the face of great expectations, but even those great results haven’t kept the market happy with the chipmaker or big tech stocks to start 2025. - Apple and Eli Lilly’s plans to expand manufacturing and development in the U.S. - Earning updates from Home Depot, Axon, and Cava. Here is Jason’s fabled at-home Cava recipe: https://moribyan.com/spicy-lamb-meatballs-cava-copycat/ (19:11) Jason dives deeper into Axon’s earnings with President Josh Isner, breaking down some of the major growth opportunities ahead, and how the company is approaching the focus on government budgets and tariff talks. (34:53) Matt and Jason break down two stocks on their radar: Marqueta and EPR Properties. Stocks discussed: NVDA, AAPL, LLY, HD, AXON, CAVA, MQ, EPR Host: Dylan Lewis Guests: Jason Moser, Matt Argersinger, Josh Isner Engineers: Dan Boyd, Rick Engdahl Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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The cool kid just rolled up in his leather jacket. This week's Motleyful Money Radio Show starts now. That's why they call it money. The best thing. Cool global headquarters. This is Motley Fool Money Radio Show. I'm Dylan Lewis. Joining me over the Airwaves, Motley Fool's senior analyst Jason Moser and Matt Argersinger,

Fools, great to have you both here. Dylan. Hey. This week, fresh off their earnings report, we've got Axon's president on the major growth levers for the company. We have plenty of company results. for you guys to dig into, and of course, you both brought your stocks on your radar this week. To kick us off, we have results from the chipmaker, NVIDIA. And, Jason, it kind of feels like one of those 90s teen movies,

where everyone has been waiting for the popular kid to show up at the party. I love the 90s teen movies reference. It feels like we've been saying this a lot with NVIDIA recently. You need to beware of the burden of great expectations. I mean, this is a company that just continues to lob up amazing numbers. This was an absolutely fine quarter, but the market has its sights obviously set very high on this one. And so that probably explains a little bit of the volatility in the share price this week. But I think when you look into the numbers, the numbers I think were great.

Revenue $39.3 billion was up 12% sequentially, but even more impressively, it was up 78% from a year ago. and it beat their outlook of $37.5 billion. Now, if you break that down, the data center revenue, which is clearly the gist of this business, right, the crux of this business, data center revenue of $35.6 billion. That was a record for the company. That was up 93% from a year ago as the Blackwell ramp commenced. They continue to see strong demand in Hopper. Hopper 200, that continued sequential growth. But ultimately, they delivered $11 billion in Blackwell revenue, which I thought was very encouraging. They saw, obviously, the large cloud service providers that represented about half of their data center revenue overall. So, big spending from the biggest of spenders.

Gaming revenue, $2.5 billion, that was down 11% from a year ago. The professional visualization side of the business, that revenue $511 million was up 10% percent. from a year ago. And then finally, the automotive and robotics segment, that revenue of $570 million for the quarter was up 103% from a year ago. And this was something, I had to double-check this in the call, because I was kind of amazed by this. The automotive vertical revenue is expected to grow approximately, it's expected to go to approximately $5 billion for this coming fiscal year. Now, that compares to $1.7 billion. from this last year.

So we can see some real progress being made in that automotive and robotics segment of the business. But gross margin down slightly. That was expected as this Blackwell ramp continues. They're kind of making sure they get products out to consumers as fast as this can. But, again, I think all things considered a very good quarter, it's just the market has very high expectations for this business today. There have been some concerns around AI workloads. The Deep Seek saga kind of made a lot of people wonder,

exactly how real and how sustained the chip demand is going to be, Jensen Huang doesn't seem all that concerned. He had some comments on the conference call Jason, basically saying we are seeing much more adoption of a reasoning approach to LLMs and AI work. That's just the beginning. We're going to see more simulation and search-based models, and that is going to drive a lot more compute than we currently have, and that a lot of people are currently using. Essentially, he's not worried about demand for chips or their data center business anytime soon. Well, I love the cloud puns there, Dylan. I feel like that was intentional. I'm going to go ahead and give you credit for it. It's an interesting question, right? There's a sort of narrative now where we're sort of deliberating like, what is the actual demand? This question really boils down to demand. On one side of the coin, the questions are kind of growing. Are we overbuilding? Some think so, perhaps. I mean, obviously, as you mentioned, this computational prowess requires a lot of power. And so I think that would speak to the demand there.

You look at Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon. I mean, he just said the other day, on the other hand, there's not enough chips and power to meet AI demand. So I think that's a question that investors will have to deliberate as we kind of move forward with this story. As you noted, market took a little bit of a breather on this report, shares down about 10% this week. And Matt, it seems like some of that is earnings.

Some of that is what I'm going to call macro malaise, kind of affecting stocks right now. I think that's right, Dylan. And I like what Jamos said about the burden of high expectations for a company like Nvidia. I think that's the case for most of the Mag 7. You know, I mean, if you look at what led the stock market over the last two years, it was these massive technology companies. And of course, Nvidia was at the spear tip of that. But look what's happened to the market. I mean, the SMP 500, it's down about 5%. This is as a Friday morning, down about 5% from its high, not a big move. But look what's happened to the

Mag 7. Apple down about 9%. it down 11%, Amazon 14%, Microsoft down 16, Alphabet down 18, Nvidia, which we talked about, down almost 22%, and Tesla down 42%. Guys, wow. I'm not saying this is a sea change in the market, but I do think some of the things that really worked over the last two years are not working so far here in 2025. And some of the things that didn't work, and I know about a lot of these, like real estate, industrials, and dividend-paying stocks are doing great so far in 2025. and, you know, it just makes you wonder, is this a shift in market?

Seems like Apple is trying to get the market excited about some of its domestic investments this week. Company announcing $500 billion in commitments to fund new internal initiatives and manufacturing here in the U.S. And, Jason, it seems like a lot of this is focused on some of their artificial intelligence, machine learning, and chip capabilities. Yeah, I think big picture, I mean, Apple and beyond, I mean, these are investments in the U.S. companies are starting to look at their supply chains a little bit more closely. Obviously, a priority of this current administration is to reduce reliance on certain entities in that supply chain. I think China stands out as an example there. But companies are definitely trying to see around the corner. I think in regard to Apple, it makes a lot of sense. I mean, that's a lot of money, right, $500 billion of the next four years. clearly a company that can afford it, but again, kind of speaks back to the investments that we're seeing from all of these big tech companies in their AI aspirations. Apple has kind of flown under the radar with all of this stuff right now. When we're talking about AI, Apple's not really the first company that's coming to mind,

and maybe these investments will start to shift that discussion a little bit. Apple, not alone in making commitments this week. Drugmaker Eli Lilly also announcing plans to invest. over $25 billion. Yes, a bit smaller than that $500 billion commitment we saw from Apple, but Eli Lilly is doing their part. And Matt, for them, they are focusing on boosting supplies of the weight loss and diabetes drugs, also looking to fuel some new drug development. It feels like with both these stories, it's a bit of where the world is going. And really, we can't be that surprised that these companies are making these commitments.

No, and I think this is where the world's been going really since the pandemic. I mean, and, you know, J-Mo talked about supply chain issues with Apple. It was acute for the healthcare space in those early days of COVID. And so a lot of investments have already been made to try to fix those supply chains, make sure that there's redundant inventory of medical devices and drugs here in the U.S. And so I kind of think a lot of these investments were already in the pipeline. I mean, I think the Trump administration has given these companies a, well, a gentle push, as gentle as Trump can be with these kind of things.

But, you know, with Apple in particular, most of their products are made in China, 10% tariff, you know, they've kind of been gotten around that in the past, but maybe they wouldn't get around this time. So maybe that's a little more incentive for them to invest. But Eli Lilly, I think was seeing the demand already. They had to make investments. Yeah, I think Matti's absolutely right there. It's it is really about trying to figure out ways to diversify that supply chain. I think in regard to Eli Lilly in specific, I mean, remember too, I mean, lawmakers here in the U.S., they're considering legislation, this thing called the biosecure. Act, right? This is a bill that would prevent U.S. companies from working with certain Chinese biotech companies. And companies like Eli Lilly are very dependent on that China supply chain source, right? I mean, they are absolutely dependent on China as a part of their supply chain. And this Biosecure Act could really fundamentally change that. So it absolutely makes sense that they're, again, trying to kind of see around that corner and make some investments to get away from that dependency. All right, coming up after the break, we've got a retailer returning to its winning ways.

Stay right here. This is a Motleyful Money. What does leadership really look like? On The Power of Advice, a new podcast series from Capital Group, you'll hear from athletes, entrepreneurs, and executives who've led on the field, in the boardroom, and in their communities. It's not about titles. It's about impact.

Discover what drives them and the advice they carry forward. Subscribe and start listening today. Published by Capital Climbled. Client Group, Inc. Welcome back to Motleyful Money. I'm Dylan Lewis here on air with Motley Fool analysts, Jason Mozer and Matt Argersinger. We're kicking off this earnings rundown with one of the companies Our Man Behind the Glass, Dan Boyd absolutely loves. It's where doers get more done, Home Depot. Matt, looking at the results, it seems like there are more doers doing a bit more doing this quarter. A bit more, Dylan. I mean, comps and earnings came in a little bit better than management

was expecting than what they had guided for a quarter ago. So it was a better quarter, but I would just say this. You can't really write home about 1.3% growth in U.S. comps, especially when you're starting to lap pretty slow results a year ago with a lot of HD's comps. So, you know, take it with a great assault. I mean, operating margin was down again. Earnings per share were higher, but that was because there was an extra week of sales in this fourth quarter than a year ago. So you take that out, the 30 cents they got from that, and earnings for share were lower again. And the dividend, hey, dividend was only raised 2.2%. That was the smallest increase for Home Depot in 13 years.

So disappointing. And look, guidance for 2025 was really not that great. I'm looking for another year of flat to slightly higher comps, lower earnings. It really, Dylan, it becomes down to customers just still being reluctant to spend on big ticket items, not doing a lot of kitchen or bathroom remodels. The pro side is definitely holding up better, but until the housing market gets unstuck, we've talked about this. I mean, existing home sales are at multi-decade lows.

Mortgage rates are back near 7%. Without a pickup and transactions on the home front, it's hard to see HAC sales gain any traction. By the way, at this stage in Home Depot's evolution, I should say, store growth isn't going to do it. They're only going to open 13 stores this year. That's on a base of more than 2,300 stores. So the unit economics at the storefront have to get better, and I don't see them getting better until we have a housing recovery. It speaks to how much I want to see this business turn it around, that I am cheering single-digit top-line growth. But we've been waiting to see both top-line growth from this business and same store sales positive again.

Now we have both on the right track, but Jason, Home Depot is not without a new challenge. We talked about some of the macro stuff a little bit earlier. Tariffs, certainly something that will affect a business like Home Depot. What is the outlook there? Yeah, well, Maddie, I know that wasn't the biggest dividend boost in the world, but 2.35% yield to kind of sit there and be patient with a business like this. I'm okay with hanging in there, just waiting it out. But, yeah, I think tariffs is something, I mean, we're talking about across the market here. I think the encouraging thing here in regard to Home Depot, tariffs, it was not a huge theme or concern in the call, right? They got a couple of questions on it. It's something that they continue to deal with, but kind of going back to that conversation in regard to Apple. and Eli Lilly, I mean, this is something that's been in there, it's been on their radar for a while, right? They've been working at this over the last six to seven years, trying to diversify that supply chain and get away from having to worry so much about that.

So all they mentioned the call really in regard to this, they're not terribly worried about it. They feel like they've got the best team in place to deal with it and given their experience in dealing with it over the last seven years. Plus, they're confident they'll be able to navigate those choppy waters if they arise. So I think in that regard, I mean, this is just another thing where you look at a company like Home Depot. This is clearly something where their scale is just a very big advantage in, you know, these types of things ebb and flow, right? This two shall pass, and I think Home Depot will be just fine. Jason, keeping the earnings beat going. Do you know who has two thumbs and is down on his biggest possession this week?

That ain't me. This guy. Oh. Shares of BodyCam and Taser Maker, Axon, one of my largest holdings, down about 10% following their quarterly update this week. Shares about 25% off highs recently. What's going on here? Well, it's been a volatile stretch, to be sure.

The stock is down 11% on the year. It's still better than 90% over the last 12 months. So let's give them where credits do. But market volatility aside, I would say this was a very impressive quarter from a company that just is that they don't seem to see. stand still, Dylan. They just keep innovating and bringing new things to market. The revenue for the quarter of $575 million. That was up 34% from year ago. It marked their 12th consecutive quarter of over 25% revenue growth. They saw double-digit growth year over year in all of their

business areas. Tays are up 37%. Censors up 18%. Software and services up 41%. So that's all very encouraging. And it's also very encouraging that the two areas where they're most excited about today are the enterprise and international segments, because they are just a lot of opportunities to expand their business. They signed the biggest deal in company history with a global logistics provider. That's in the enterprise segment. We'll probably learn who that is later on down the road. But I think, you know, one of the things to consider that drove a lot of the volatility, this headline out recently in regard to flock safety, a safety technology startup known for its automated license plate reader solution. They were partners since April 2,

2020. This seems to be a bit more of a negotiating tactic. It doesn't seem like they're trying to part ways. I think they're just trying to make this relationship work better for both companies. So I wouldn't be surprised to see news here in the near future where these two companies are happy working together again. We'll have a bit more commentary on Axon's quarter from President Josh Isner. You got the chance to speak with him earlier this week. That's coming up after the break. Before we get there, though. You've got digging results from Mediterranean fast casual chain. Kava, Matt, serving up some spicy lamb for its fourth quarter results, but the market seemed to be focused on some

guidance that could use a little salt here. That's right. Not quite as spicy on the guidance. I'm not surprised that the stock has sold off as it has since those earnings because of the guidance. I mean, if you look at the results themselves, hard to find anything to complain about. I mean, 21% same restaurant sales growth in the fourth quarter, a 15.6% increase in traffic. Restaurant profit margin continues to increase for Kava. But when it came to guidance, looking at comps of 6 to 8 percent, that's about half of what Kava did in 2024 for the full year. So that was probably disappointed to see growth decelerate that fast.

And you have to remember going to the report, how richly the stock was valued. Kava's market cap about a month ago was over 16 billion, which valued each restaurant at around 45 million per store. I mean, ask yourself if you're an aspiring restaurateur, would you spend $45 million on a store that generates about $3 million in revenue and about $600,000 in profit? I don't think you would do that, Dylan. I certainly wouldn't. And even look at Chipotle 10 years ago when it was at kind of the same stage as Kava,

its restaurants never traded near that valuation. And so even after the sell-off, you're still looking at a pretty richly priced stock, but results have been fantastic. This is still an awesome emerging market concept that I think we know has plenty of runway of growth. So this might be one of those opportunities to invest in, you know, behind a sell-off. Jason, this is one of those companies where a lot of things do have to go right. We know they need to continue building out their growth story with their store footprint. We need to see comps hold up.

But I'm curious, do you think the market is weighing the fact that there might be some burgeoning competition from the Moser household? And in particular, the Jason Moser menu. It's a very fair question, Dylan. I appreciate you bringing that up. I mean, we were talking before taping here. I discovered the recipe for that spicy lamb meatball mix there, and I'm going to tell you what, it is really, really good. Well, maybe we'll drop that in the episode description.

If that's available somewhere, Jason, for folks that are listening to this week's radio show in podcast form, that's why it's worth subscribing. You get those little bonus nuggets here and there, right? It works for me. Full food. I've talked about it before. All right, up next, Jason's going to keep the earnings focus,

digging further into Axon's results with company president Josh Isner. Stay right here. Those things about full money. I'm not feeling all right today. I'm not feeling that great. I'm not catching on fire today. Love has started to fade. I'm not going to smile today.

I'm not going to laugh. You're out living it up. Digger puts on the forcepts. The Stone Mason does give you a carpenter. Can take you out. Welcome to lunch to play on my panpipes. Want to drink me some wine? As soon as you're born, you start dying,

so you might as well have a good time. Welcome back to Motleyful Money. I'm Dylan Lewis. Listeners, we gave you a quick rundown on Axon's earnings earlier in the show. Now for the deep dive on the body camera and taser maker that holds the spot as the largest holding in my portfolio. Fool analyst Jason Moser caught up with Axon's President Josh Isner to talk through the company's recently reported quarter, some of the

major growth opportunities ahead, and how the business is approaching the focus on government budgets and tariff talks. So, Josh, let's talk a little bit about the results. This is another report with a lot to like on both the quarter and the year. Clearly, the market having a very positive reception to what you all reported. A number of milestones, I thought, for the quarter and for the year, reading through the shareholder letter. What stands out to you in what? regard to this quarter that you all just reported? You know, it's probably a couple things. And Jason, again, thank you for having me on. It's good to see you again. I think the standouts are, look, our revenue growth rate, seeing that at 30% plus for three straight years now on top of probably

four or five years behind it at 25% plus growth, that's exciting, you know, as the numbers get bigger to see the growth really endure. And then bookings, you know, that's one of the forward kind of indicators of our business that we look at a lot is making sure that total contract value is representative of continued growth out into the future. That came in at over $5 billion this year. That's a record for us. And we're really proud of that and can't wait to hopefully break that record this year. And then lastly, the enterprise segment, this is the customer base that is not part of public safety. So think like retailers, logistics companies, et cetera. We actually closed our biggest deal in company history in that segment.

So even considering law enforcement, the federal government, our international customers, Enterprise now holds the biggest deal in company history, which I think is a really, really exciting sign for the things to come in that market. Absolutely. I'm glad you brought up Enterprise. I definitely want to get to that in just a minute. One thing that stood out to me for the quarter, and it just seems like you guys do this quarter in and quarter at net revenue retention at 123%. I mean, that's just been such a strong metric for you all. And I think it really speaks. to not only bringing your customers into your universe, but then keeping them and expanding those relationships over time. So I thought that was a really encouraging metric. The one thing I was really kind of surprised to see, pleasantly, I'll say, you raised your total addressable market opportunity rather significantly. Now, last I think I saw in the first quarter of the year, you raised it from 50 billion to 77 billion. And I know typically you guys do that on a two-year cadence. And this was an exceptions, but now you see this total addressable market at an eye catching $129 billion.

Now, you guys just crossed over the $2 billion revenue mark. So there clearly is a lot of opportunity there, but what are the drivers behind raising that total addressable market so significantly? Yeah, I think, like you had alluded to, the enterprise segment is a big part of that, as well as more product fit across many of our markets. So, you know, whereas two years ago, we had fewer products and we were in fewer markets. Now we have more products and we've kind of established ourselves in more markets. And so, you know, I think it's safe to assume that with more products available, sales can increase in those markets. And that's really what's driving the Tam update there. And it's exciting stuff. We're very excited to see the continued opportunity. It's

kind of a story of one thing leading to another where, you know, we solve problems for our customers and more opportunities present themselves. And we really work hard to, you were talking about our NLR number, we really, really work hard to drive a great customer experience. And we want our customers to be fans of ours. NPS, we consider one of the biggest indicators in our business. We're very proud of our NPS score. And we take it very seriously. And when you invest in your customers and really feel like, hey, you know, the customers at the center of everybody, at Axons universe, not just our sales team or our executive team, but the folks in finance, the folks in people ops, like every policy, everything we do, we make sure that the outcome is

going to be better for our customers. And when we have that mindset, I think it leads to exciting results like this. Absolutely. So on the call, you talked about two customer groups in particular that you're really excited about. And that gets back to number one, the enterprise customer and then also international. So let's go ahead and start with Enterprise. And I'm glad that you, you clarified that for listeners exactly what enterprise customers are. You noted, you book the largest deal in company history with a global logistics provider. Now, I'm going to take a shot here because I have to. Any hint as to who this global logistics provider is? We will be announcing them by name in the coming months, but for now, we're just sticking with global logistics provider. But I will

tell you this, they are my favorite global logistics partner in history. I will not, I will not partner or even as a consumer use any other product moving forward. When companies show faith in us, where we get excited about that. Well, I respect that. We'll just stay tuned and look for that name. It's neat to think about this being the biggest deal that you've signed. And I wonder, was this an all-encompassing deal or is it one where this is a really big customer that's signed on for a couple of things that'll then give you the opportunity to cross-sell in the future? We hope it's the ladder, for sure. The deal includes body cameras, evidence.com licensing, and our fuses product, and we're really pleased to get off the ground there, but certainly we think there's going to be

a lot of future opportunities around drones and robotics, around more video tools and AI, around drone defense and mitigation. All of these are, you know, in the logistics world, you can imagine you're housing millions of dollars of merchandise and warehouses. You've got a lot of risk, you know, in terms of liability, in terms of handling merchandise. and items for both civilians and for enterprises, and all of a sudden, you know, those warehouses could become targets of drones. And so to have drone defense and awareness capabilities around all your highest value assets, we think that's going to be a growing market as well. Well, the other demographic that you were very excited about, are very excited about international,

but we saw sequential growth there of 50%, which was really impressive, considering that's on top of 40% from just a quarter ago. We know your aspirations in regard to this international business. I think it's in the 20 to 25 percent range of your business today. But you ultimately see it becoming probably closer to 80 percent, that international opportunity. Now, that's obviously a little ways down the road, I would think. But what is going well? What's driving the growth there in those international markets? I think we've had good product market fit in international historically, especially with our tasers and body cameras. I think the part of the equation that's changing a little is now some of these international customers are growing more and more open to storing digital evidence in the cloud. And that hasn't always been the case. And I think that's part of the equation. The other part of it is we've made some major upgrades on our team this year. We have our new CRO. Cameron is based in Europe. He comes from AWS where he ran Europe, Middle East and Africa or AWS. And a very talented guy and very thoughtful about how we go to market international. and as a combination of having a good sound strategy and bringing on the right country managers and

resources around those country managers, I think those investments are starting to make a difference in our international business. And like you said, there's a huge opportunity out there. I think we will have failed as a company if our international business doesn't surpass our U.S. public safety business at some point because the reality is there's just way more customers internationally, way more users, and it's our job to figure out how we can build the exact right products for them that will drive the type of value that our products drive in the U.S. So you acquired a business last year, and you just mentioned it earlier, FUSIS, and I wonder, could you just give us a little explanation,

give our listeners a little explanation, what FUSIS is and how it ultimately is making Axons business stronger? Yeah, we're very proud to have them on our team now. Chris Lindenow is their founder, and he built a very good team and product over at FUSIS. And what the product does is we call it the Switzerland of CCTV. So essentially, think about all of your different camera feeds you might have in your building or interior or exterior. You might have a bunch of different vendors in terms of hardware. Fusis essentially fuses all of those camera feeds together into one pane of glass. So if you're in a real-time crime center and you're

looking at everything going on, you can get an alert right into your crime center. Oh, this business is having, you know, there's a theft in progress or something, and the police can actually see it and react accordingly. And then, of course, for city-owned and police-owned cameras as well, same dynamic. And so we were never super excited about getting into the fixed camera business in terms of hardware, but in terms of software and being able to fuse all those feeds together, that's extremely valuable for our customers. Another story that has continued to go on with what seems like a lot of red tape is your real estate aspirations in the state of Arizona. And I saw on a call that it doesn't seem like it's something that's going to resolve itself soon.

But I guess first, I just wanted to start with a strategy behind all of this because it's a pretty grand vision. So can you explain exactly what the vision is here? I mean, this is not an insignificant investment on Axon's part. And I think maybe investors, some investors maybe feel like it could be something that is taking the company's focus away. I would imagine you all view it differently. Our company was started in Arizona. Rick started it in his garage in Tucson. So Arizona's very much been near and dear to our hearts, and we love being there. I lived in Arizona for the last 16 years and made a lot of great friends out there.

We've had a lot of success as a business, and we love being there. Candidly, Jason, Arizona's just got to decide if it wants to. be a business-oriented state or a retirement-oriented state. There's a big anti-development sentiment in Arizona. And now other, like, you know, our project was actually approved by the Scottsdale City Council. Like, it was zoned and we were ready to go. And then an out-of-state union came in and partnered with a former politician in Arizona to essentially pay to get signatures to put this out to referendum. I think 93% of the signatures garnered were from paid signature gout. others, most of the money came in from out of state. And it's one of these where it's like, wait a second,

this is our land. The city already said we could build this thing on it. Why is it that the elected officials in Scottsdale can't speak for the city anymore? Why do we have to wait two years for this to go out to referendum now? And Arizona just lost Anderil. They went to Ohio. What does Ohio have to offer that Arizona doesn't? Nothing against Ohio, but Arizona is a great state too. And so I think it's a matter of like, look, does the state really want to be a state where businesses can thrive, or is it going to be anti-development and focus more on residential in retirement, which is fine, but that's a choice of theirs to make. And where the rubber hits the road on this for us, Jason, is that there are no top 100 colleges in Arizona. We have to import a lot of the talent

at AXon from other states. And if we can have a campus that gives people an affordable place to live, that offers dining and other activities right on campus and our headquarters is there, that's the recruiting tool we need to keep growing our headcount in Arizona. And it's also an opportunity to bring in industry events and other forms of tourism into the state. And we think there's a win-win for everyone. But at the end of the day, just like any company in any state, you know, the politics can sometimes be a hurdle that you have to overcome. And we're working through that, but our patience on this isn't going to last forever. And we're getting more and more serious about looking at other alternatives for our headquarters

outside of the state of Arizona. Gotcha. Well, speaking of politics and we're not getting political, so to speak here, but just bigger picture. I mean, clearly there is this big focus in DC these days on cutting costs, maximizing efficiencies, given the overall opportunity for Axon at the state and the federal level. Is this a cause for concern for the leadership team? Is this something y'all are discussing as a source of potential near-term headwinds? Actually, I think it's going to be a tailwind when all the dust settles for us. I think what you're seeing is contracts are being canceled that either like, hey, you're just like, hey, should we be spending taxpayer money on this? Probably not. Or are we not getting value out of this contract that we're paying a lot for as a government?

And at Axon's case, we're actually, you know, our products are heavily, heavily used. They're valued by our users. They're ones that we think deliver great outcomes for the government. And I think they feel the same way. And so as some of this money is freed up, I do anticipate there's an opportunity there for more to be spent on military, more to be spent on defense tech and federal law enforcement. And so I think we're relatively insulated from a lot of the cuts, but actually these cuts could lead to some opportunity to help in more places. Right.

I guess same idea, given the international opportunity in all that you're doing there, how concerned are you all in regard to tariffs as it pertains to the near-term outlook? Because I tell you, Josh, it seems like every morning we wake up and there's a new headline regarding tariffs and what may or may not happen. So it feels like there's a lot of uncertainty out there. And I would imagine that your team is reassessing this on a daily basis. Yeah, absolutely. And one of the things we say a lot internally is like, hey, what we value is seeing around corners. We want people to be able to predict what's going to happen into the future. And two or three years ago, between tariffs and some of the uncertainty around China and Taiwan right now,

we really, we kicked off a big project to make our supply. chain more flexible. And so we actually feel like we're pretty well positioned, regardless of what happens with the tariffs. Our guidance, I don't think, would change as a result, as Brittany said on the call yesterday. But our operations team's done a great job with this. Josh Goldman and Eric Hurd's at Axon, they've just really gotten out ahead of these issues to where we have multiple suppliers, and we have a lot of raw materials on hand. And we've done all the things to mitigate the really bad outcomes that tariffs could lead to at times for businesses. And so we're feeling okay about that. Listeners, we love getting company leadership on to help us wade through what's going on with their

business. If there's a company you want us to reach out to, let us know. Podcasts at fool.com. Coming up next, Jason Moser and Matt Argusinger are back with me to talk about the stocks on their radar this week. That's next on Motley Fool Money. As always, people on the 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 or sell anything based solely on what you hear. All personal finance content follows Motley Fool editorial standards and is not approved by advertisers.

The Motley Fool only picks products and personally recommend friends like you. I'm Dylan Lewis. Join again by Jason Moser and Matt Argersinger. And Fools, we are going to dive right into stocks on our radar this week, as he does every week. Our man behind the glass, Dan Boyd, is going to hit you with a question after you pitch your stock. Jason, you're up first. What are you looking at this week?

Yeah, one that's probably under the radar for a lot of folks. Marquetta, ticker is MQ, and Marquetta is Embedded Finance. And in simplest terms, they provide tools and APIs that allow its customers to create an issue customized payment cards. So, I think debit, credit, prepaid, all that good stuff. But those are programs that are specifically designed for the specific business needs. Their customers are companies like Block, Uber, DoorDash, even Alphabet. So they mean a big, big name customers with a lot of folks using those networks. Shares had a great week, thanks to a strong earnings report and encouraging guidance for the coming year.

And as you can ascertain, I mean, Marquette is in FinTech. And so one of the big metrics you follow there is just total processing volume. And that for the quarter clocked in at $80 billion, that represented growth of 29%. Net revenue of $136 million in gross profit of $98 million were up 14 and 18 percent respectively. A big concern, I think, for investors early on with Marquette Astorty was, its reliance on Block as a big customer. That continues to become less and less the case. Block revenue concentration of just 46%. This quarter was down five percentage points from a year ago. And one final point, as a note here, seemingly sudden move, but CEO Simon Kulov has stepped

down. And so CFO, Mike Militich, has taken over as the interim CEO, until the company finds Kov's replacement. Dan, I saw your eyebrows go up there when Jason said, Embedded Finance. I'm curious, we get a question or a comment here on Marquetta, ticker MQ. I know Jason's always ready to bring us some war on cash-based stocks here. We love to see it. Jason, this stock price has been pretty flat for the last two years. What makes you think that's going to change anytime soon? Well, they've sort of reestablished this relationship with Block, and again, they have extended that out several years, So that's some reliability there.

And again, with those big customers, I think that makes a big difference. And they continue to grow that total payment volume. It's just very impressive rates quarter in and quarter out. So given the trend towards the digital movement in money, I'm encouraged. All right, Matt, what's on your radar this week? All right, I'm going with EPR properties, ticker EPR. If you don't know EPPR, it's an experiential reet, which means they focus on experience-based products, think restaurants, resorts, fitness centers, water parks, top golf is a big

Senate and Dan, movie theaters. And the last time I brought this company up, I'm pretty sure Dan's comment was movie theaters. Are you kidding? The last movie I saw was Katz in 2019 and it was terrible. Well, it turns out you can do pretty well with movie theaters. EPR's results were great. They raised the dividend. Still one of the best bargains in Ritland as well, 7% yield. Dan, are you still anti-movie theaters? It's not that I'm anti-movie theaters. It's that I have two young kids and a full-time job and no time to go to the movies. Still, Katz, 2019, the last time I was in a theater. All right. Well, go see Superman this summer. You're going to go see that one. I know. Get out of the house. We'll go together, Matt, you and I. All right. Sounds like an awesome deal. Dan, Marquetta or

EPR, which one's going on your watch list this week? I'm going to Marketa because I mean, FinTech, baby. Let's go. Benek, baby. Dan, thanks for weighing in. Jason Matt. Thanks for being here. That's going to do it for this week's about too money radio show. Shows mixed by Dan Boyd. I'm Dylan Lewis. Thanks for listening. See you next time.