The Canadian Investor - Two great stocks that start with the letter A

Episode Date: January 18, 2021

It’s another week in 2021 and it’s another week jam packed with news and of course, we had to talk about some of the news that caught our attention in the past week. We then go on to discuss why w...e both like Axon Enterprises and Autodesk. These two companies made a transition to a recurring revenue model in the past decade which is starting to accelerate growth in both cases. We hope that you enjoy this episode of the Canadian Investor Podcast! Tickers of stocks discussed: ADSK, AAXN, GME, ATD-B.TO, CSU.TO Want to send us a question? Check out our Anchor.fm link in the description below and leave us a voice message! Anchor voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-canadian-investor/message Twitter: @cdn_investing Getstockmarket.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-canadian-investor/messageSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome back into the show. This is the Canadian Investor Podcast, made possible by our friends and show sponsor, EQ Bank, which helps Canadians make bank with high interest and no fees on everyday banking. We also love their savings and investment products like GICs, which offer some of the best rates on the market. I personally, and I know Simone as well, is using the GICs, which offer some of the best rates on the market. I personally, and I know Simone as well, is using the GICs on a regular basis to set money aside for personal income taxes in April of every year. Their GICs are perfect because the interest rate is guaranteed, and I know I won't be able to touch that money until I need it for tax time. Whether you're looking to set some money aside for a rainy day or a big purchase is
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Starting point is 00:01:35 Simon and I are reporting from lockdown here in Ontario. So this is what we're dealing with. We seem to be getting further and further away from the end of the tunnel, but I'm hopeful, Simon. I'm curious if you're feeling a little cabin fever as well, but it's getting intense out there. Yeah. I mean, it's not easy. I think it's not easy for everyone. And yeah, Ottawa was also included in the lockdown. So it's not great. But trying to stay positive, the vaccines being rolled out, hopefully we'll be able to enjoy summer to at least the way we did last year. So I'm kind of hopeful for that. How about you? How about you? Yeah, man. It's just pray for summer and hang on until then.
Starting point is 00:02:29 But let's talk news. The biggest news this week, at least as far as the TSX is concerned, Cousteau, how did I say that there? That was pretty good. Local French-Canadian. Cousteau? Yeah, so Cousteau. So you don't say the d at the end but uh that was pretty close better than your previous kushtard okay well i'm getting better that's good so they have proposed a 20 billion
Starting point is 00:02:57 takeover of care for which i'm probably also saying incorrectly, the large French grocery store in France, not to be confused with French Canadian. And this is a huge deal, by far the biggest deal in this company's long history of acquisitions. And the stock was down 10% on the news because Couchetard is a very, very large operator of convenience stores. And this is almost pure play grocery.
Starting point is 00:03:33 We mentioned that there's a couple of grocery stores, but this is a grocery retailer. And investors are scratching their heads a little bit about this one. And Simon, you asked me before what my thoughts are. And I said, I hate it. And I understand why this stock is down. That being said, let me let me counterpoint this. The stock is way too cheap and is now in oversold territory. It's down again today. It sold off a bunch yesterday i get it this sounds like a de-warsification move but there's a couple things to consider here uh there is upside if this deal just doesn't go through like the price will probably just rebound the french regulators are already pushing back on this like almost instantly like the news came out and it's like wait wait you know press the brakes here this might not actually happen um because of the local french regulators and not being a huge fan of it and okay so let's talk a little bit numbers right the stock trades at 11
Starting point is 00:04:38 and a half times earnings and is growing like the business is growing uh the dividend grows at 20 or more every year the management team creates value they have high insider ownership the stock pumps tons of free cash it trades seven times enterprise value to ebita aka stupidly cheap for a company growing their free cash flow at 25 or 27 on a compounded annual growth rate like this is way too cheap i mean this this to me looks like a fat pitch and for a business that has executed exceptionally over the last 20 years yeah i mean it's uh i don't know it as well as you do you're you're a shareholder aren't you i've held it held it for years and years. It's been great. Yeah, it's been really a great compounder.
Starting point is 00:05:28 And obviously, there's kind of a little sentimental value for me because it is a Quebec company and I did grow up in Quebec. And I remember when I started investing when I was 18, they were already starting to make stride on the stock market because they were doing those acquisitions. They eventually bought Circle K, really integrated that really well in the business and a series of acquisition. It sounds like they're trying to expand their business. They may be hedging with a fag that in their view in the long term, there may not be a place for gas stations anymore. And we're talking like several decades out so they may be trying to edge that way that would be my my guess from one perspective um yeah i i would give them the benefit of the doubt they have such a strong track record that uh it may be a good buying opportunity if you were eyeing this business um you may want to wait and see a little bit to how it kind of
Starting point is 00:06:23 it plays out with the uh the this, whether it goes through or not as well. Yeah, fair enough. It's so cheap right now. Just looking at the metrics, it's incredibly cheap. So yeah, we'll see. I mean, if the deal doesn't go through, I mean, you're going to get some nice little arbitrage immediately on the price because shareholders are not a fan of this diversification move. And the bears hate this business for their, you know, the bear case is EVs. You know, if I have a gas station via electricity in my garage, why would I ever go to the station? And I actually agree with that bear case. I mean, people are like, oh, well, they're already investing in EV infrastructure. You should see what they're doing in Norway. And I back that, but basket sizes might increase, but volume surely will go down. So it is one that I'm holding just,
Starting point is 00:07:26 it's so cheap here anyways. We've been waiting for an unbelievable time to talk about GameStop because it has been on a hiatus from this podcast. What the hell is going on with GameStop? This is a short squeeze like I've never seen before. Yeah, yeah, that would be the main thing, a short squeeze. You also mentioned something interesting to get into as well.
Starting point is 00:07:57 But I think the other thing that was driving this is the news that some activist investors were placed on the board. I believe three. is the news that some activist investors were placed on the board, I believe three. I don't have the group of activist investors, but I know that's one of the things that was driving it. But the other thing you were saying, there's an online group of investors that kind of try to pump the stocks, something like that.
Starting point is 00:08:24 Most people would be familiar with the infamous Reddit subreddit called WallStreetBets. And WallStreetBets, they take great pride in being degenerate gamblers on the stock market. And they have actually, I want to say in the last year and a half, shown that they can actually move markets by pumping that they can actually move markets by pumping whatever they feel like doing and just riding momentum and some of them have made boatloads of cash doing this some of them have you know lost their house betting the house no pun intended and this is there's been several articles coming out about there's this one post that really caught fire and wall street bets about GameStop and, uh, these things are getting pumped and then it's this flywheel, right? It gets pumped.
Starting point is 00:09:13 There's a short squeeze and that compounds on itself. And you saw GameStop double yesterday. It's up another 27%, uh, today for, you know, basically the blockbuster of video games. This stuff happens, man. It happens all the time. So whether it's too cheap at the current $2.5 billion and this is warranted, or it's a complete pump and dump from what we've seen in the market in the last year and a half, these things happen now and short squeezes just, you know, you can, the market can
Starting point is 00:09:47 stay irrational much longer than you can stay solvent. And that's the takeaway here, right? Is be very careful with short selling. Yeah. And buyer beware. If you're looking to start a position GameStop, you're probably a value investor, deep value investor. It's not something I like getting into. I know Braden, that's not something you like to get into as well. And long term, I have a really hard time seeing how GameStop does well. So, you know, it will be a timing play, a value play if you dig in, you start a position into that. But just be careful because it's probably all about timing, unfortunately, and that's not the type of investors we are.
Starting point is 00:10:35 As do-it-yourself investors, we want to keep our fees low. That's why Simone and I have been using Questrade as our online broker for so many years now. Questrade is Canada's number one rated online broker by MoneySense, and with them, you can buy all North American ETFs, not just a few select ones, all commission free so that you can choose the ETFs that you want. And they charge no annual RRSP or TFSA account fees. They have an award winning customer service team with real people that are ready to help if you have questions along the way. As a customer myself, I've been impressed with Questrade's customer service. Whenever I call or email, every support rep is very knowledgeable and they get exactly what I need done quickly. Switch for free today and keep more of your money. Visit questrade.com for details. That is questrade.com.
Starting point is 00:11:22 That is questtrade.com. Here on the show, we talk about companies with strong two-sided networks make for the best products. I'm going to spend this coming February and March in an Airbnb in South Florida for a combination of work and vacation and realized, hey, my place could be a great Airbnb while I'm away. Since it's just going to be sitting empty, it could make some extra income. But there are still so many people who don't even think about hosting on Airbnb or think it's a lot of work to get started. But now it is easier than ever with Airbnb's new co-host network. You can hire a local quality co-host to take care of your home and guests. It's a win-win since you make some extra money hosting on Airbnb, but can still focus on enjoying your time away. Find a co-host at at airbnb.ca forward slash host. That is airbnb.ca forward slash host.
Starting point is 00:12:28 Yeah, that's right. And don't be confused, right? Like we are value investors, but don't be confused with that as looking for turnarounds or timing something. Because at the end of the day, good value investors are also looking for growth, like those two things do not have to be divorced from each other. And we are trying to find businesses and invest in businesses, hold them for a long time, that will be better, more profitable, stronger, have a wider moat in 10 years than now. And if you can't simply say that this business will very likely be better in the future than it currently is, then I just have no interest in it long term. So I told everyone that I'd give them an update on the Topicus spinoff for Constellation Software. So just quick recap, Constellation Software owns a business called
Starting point is 00:13:32 Topicus.com. And it is a Dutch company out of the Netherlands. And Constellation buys software businesses, they throw them into their big black box of software companies that they own, which is a ton of them. And Topicus was one of them. They decided to spin it off as its own public listing. So Topicus shares have officially showed up in my brokerage on Questrade. It looks like there's a two for one. So you get two Topicus shares for every consolation share you hold. And the rumors are that it's going to be priced at $30.
Starting point is 00:14:09 There's still no price on it. It officially starts trading in early February, February 2nd, I want to say. That sounds right. So, yeah, anywhere from $30. Rumors have said that it could trade up to $60 on the first day of trading. I don't know. I have no idea, but 30 seems to be consensus. So whatever you decide to do with the shares, I'm personally holding them, digging more into the business for now. If you do decide to sell it and think of it as a huge, fat, chunky, chunky special dividend then all the power to you but
Starting point is 00:14:45 that's that's what's happening with topic is right now uh what's going on with weed stocks simone because this is uh these things are hot right now it feels like october 2018 all over again yeah so marijuana stocks so we did talk about it the last time was when we talked about the upcoming u.s election um and i did mention back then that the one thing that would probably have the biggest impact on legalization in the US would not be the presidential election, would actually be who controls the Senate. So if the Democrats would control the Senate, then there's a strong chance that it becomes legalized because it has to go through the Senate and there'll be
Starting point is 00:15:25 the determining factor. And it looks like the Democrats are controlling the Senate now with the runoff election in Georgia last week. It's a split 50-50, but because when there's a split in the U.S. Senate, the deciding vote goes to the vice president, who is Carmel Harris, and she has the vote. So since the results were known of the runoff election, unfortunately, obviously, it was overshadowed with what happened in the Capitol last week. But since the results were known, the wheat stocks or marijuana stocks really have been on a tear. We were chatting about it this morning and I can't really think of another sector that's more driven by news because I'm looking at I follow about seven or eight on my watch list just for fun because I'm not really interested in investing in any of them but there's one of them that I follow that is a micro cap it's a very small marijuana company listed in Canada, and they don't have any
Starting point is 00:16:26 intentions of going to the US. And their stock is up like 50% since the news came out. So it's really all news right now. I would take it with a grain of salt. I would wait and see still what happens with legalization in the US. And like I've mentioned before, there are companies that are better positioned than others to go into the U.S. market. Canopy Growth is one of them with their ties to consolation brands. So make sure you do your due diligence and you don't assume that U.S. legalization will automatically benefit the marijuana company that you may be interested in. But that's been the biggest driver for these stocks. Yeah. Yeah, they move so much on sentiment and news. And the assumption that, you know,
Starting point is 00:17:14 sales are just going to skyrocket as soon as legalization happens. Maybe, sure. But in Canada, that did not happen. Like that just straight up did not happen the rollout was slow uh people are completely brand agnostic couldn't find that word people are completely brand agnostic and i've mentioned that many times on this podcast when it comes to the packaging being completely uh decided by the government. You know, they have to comply to all these regulations. And it's really hard to differentiate yourself between competitors if you're a grower, in my opinion. So yeah, another buyer beware, hot sector that moves so much, like there's so much volatility on news. And you just got to be aware of that. I mean, I don't believe volatility and risk are equal.
Starting point is 00:18:19 They're not. Fundamentals drive actual risk. Short-term price action and volatility may not mean real long-term risk. But if you are going to sell shares on a drawdown, then that's risky. You have to know yourself. So if you're going to sell shares or act irrationally and don't know the business and try to trade these things, that is very risky. So there is a time when volatility can be actually risky for you to losing capital if you know how you're going to actually react. So something to consider. All right, Simon, let's move from news. we consider. All right, Simon, let's move from news. We got two businesses that start with a one each that we really like both own positions in would probably own more here, have all the right things happening for them. So I will let you go first. Okay, perfect. So yeah, it's a business.
Starting point is 00:19:19 Actually, both businesses are ones that we've mentioned before on the podcast. This one I talked about last summer, so you can revisit the episode. I'll try to look it up and post a link in the show notes if you guys want to listen to that episode. So that company is Axon Enterprises. For those of you who are not familiar with, it's formerly known as Taser. So you'll probably know exactly who they are right now. So they've really been growing very quickly. What's been really amazing about their growth too is they've been transitioning from a hardware or yeah, hardware only business to a business that offers SaaS, so software as a service through their evidence.com platform. So it's a cloud based
Starting point is 00:20:05 platform that law enforcement agencies use to store evidence. So they also have body cameras. So that footage is actually stored automatically to the evidence.com platform. So you can really understand why it's attractive for law enforcement agencies and my bullish case for it was with everything that was happening with the black life matters movement and everything that was going on especially in the states but in canada too i really thought there'd be a push by law enforcement agency to be as transparent as possible and axon really offers a platform for that. So recently, some big news came out. So the couple, I think it was actually yesterday. So the DEA came, well, there's news that came out that they're working with the DEA on a sole source contract with Axon for body cameras and access to
Starting point is 00:21:01 their evidence.com platform, which would obviously bring some substantial reoccurring revenues for Axon. So what this tells me is that the DEA, a large agency in the US, is basically saying we don't see any other businesses offering a comparable or even close service to Axon. So we won't even do a tender. We'll just go and negotiate a contract with Axon because they have the product that we want and there's really nothing comparable. So you can really start seeing that their moat is starting to build. And once you have those agencies on and they're used to the platform, I really believe that the switching costs will be very high for businesses, just everything involved in switching, right? So I think just those news really drove the stock up in the last couple of days,
Starting point is 00:21:54 but I've really been bullish on it. I wish I would have bought more stock in the summer because my cause base is about $80 per share, but I'm still happy I started a position. $80 per share but I'm still happy I started a position. Just some news, just some numbers to wrap your head around how quickly it's growing. So their most recent financial statements with the quarterly release so Q3. So a lot of these numbers will be the first nine months but I'll compare them to some full years previously and you'll see how quickly it's growing. So for the first nine months of 2020, their total revenues increased 26% versus the first nine months of 2019. So that's $444 million versus $359 million. Products now represent about 72% of total sales versus 74% last year and services increased 36% versus the nine months last year so they're really seeing strong growths and that services
Starting point is 00:22:53 or that reoccurring revenue segment that was 129 million versus 84 million for those nine months this year versus last year. Services now represent 28% versus 26% last year. So that's great because we want to see that increasing. And just to give you guys an idea, in 2017, for the full year, services were only 58 million. So that's compared to 129 this year, but that was for the full year. So $58,000 for the full year. And in 2020, for the first nine months, they had grown to the $129,000 I just mentioned. In 2017, services only represented 17% of all sales, so we're seeing that growing, which is great because you want to see that reoccurring revenue. growing which is great because you want to see that reoccurring revenue and total sales in 2017 were 343 million versus 455 million in 2020 for the first
Starting point is 00:23:54 nine months so if they're continuing in that run rate for this year they've probably doubled their revenue since 2017 the reason I use the 2017 figures is they started breaking down their total sales with hardware versus services. So that's why I went to 2017. But aside from that, I mean, there's a lot of things to like. One of the things I would keep an eye on is the share count because they do a lot of stock-based compensation, which is not great. But even with that, it's a business I really like. They're free cash flow positive. So they're bringing in money. They're not profitable on a gap basis, but I've mentioned that before. For me, free cash flow is one of the most important things. And what's really great is management is delivering on what they said. So they actually started that transition to a SaaS
Starting point is 00:24:49 business model about 10 years ago. And it's been a really, really good increase in terms of their transition. And it's not trading cheaply. It's 16 times sales. It was trading a lot cheaper over the summer. And that's why I really liked it back then because in my view people were overlooking it as a SaaS play. They were still seeing it as that kind of hardware company but I feel like now with the run-up in price it's had I think people are seeing it a bit more to what it is. But going forward, I still think they have a really strong moat. They don't seem to have a lot of competition versus them. So I think it's a company that you could really hold for several years. As do-it-yourself investors, we want to keep our fees low. That's
Starting point is 00:25:40 why Simone and I have been using Questrade as our online broker for so many years now. Questrade is Canada's number one rated online broker by MoneySense, and with them, you can buy all North American ETFs, not just a few select ones, all commission free, so that you can choose the ETFs that you want. And they charge no annual RRSP or TFSA account fees. They have an award-winning customer service team with real people that are ready to help if you have questions along the way. As a customer myself, I've been impressed with Questrade's customer service. Whenever I call or email, every support
Starting point is 00:26:15 rep is very knowledgeable and they get exactly what I need done quickly. Switch for free today and keep more of your money. Visit questrade.com for details. That is questrade.com. Here on the show, we talk about companies with strong two-sided networks make for the best products. I'm going to spend this coming February and March in an Airbnb in South Florida for a combination of work and vacation and realized, hey, my place could be a great Airbnb while I'm away. Since it's just going to be sitting empty, it could make some extra income. But there are still so many people who don't even think about hosting on Airbnb or think it's a lot of work to get started. But now it is easier than ever with Airbnb's new co-host network. You can hire a local
Starting point is 00:27:12 quality co-host to take care of your home and guests. It's a win-win since you make some extra money hosting on Airbnb, but can still focus on enjoying your time away. Find a co-host at Airbnb.ca forward slash host. That is Airbnb.ca forward slash host. This is a good business. And this is what we talked about on the last episode, which was these companies that sell hardware to get you into their high margin recurring revenue software services, like intuitive surgical, like this business axon. It's a really good model. It's sticky. And yeah, when you're getting these margins, which is, you said 28% of sales is now from the SaaS business. Yeah, that's it.
Starting point is 00:28:09 Yeah, that's a huge pivot in terms of what that SKU used to be. And it's very good. This is a huge, huge win for them. So the fact that the DEA is sole sourcing this means their tech is better the hardware is better and they really want to use this service and this offering so clearly they have some sort of moat and uh yeah it's been it's been good for you so far you haven't had it for that long though have, have you? No, I started in the summer.
Starting point is 00:28:51 When we talked about it, probably a week after that, I started a position. No, it's been... I'm not going to complain. What's the ticker? It's A-A-X-N, I believe. A-A-X-N. Yeah. For those at home, A-A-X-N. Okay, I got my business that also starts with an a that most
Starting point is 00:29:10 people know i'm a huge fan of and as you were saying as you were talking about axon this is another business that had to pivot to a software as a service model and is now benefiting from it so when we say sass that means software as a service. Okay, so the business is Autodesk. The ticker is A-D-S-K. Autodesk is software that serves architecture, engineering, and construction, aka AEC. So I might drop that AEC acronym every once in a while.
Starting point is 00:29:44 Again, that's architecture, engineering and construction. So designers, architects, engineering firms, companies that build 3d models and entertainment businesses, they use Autodesk's software suite. And they have 72 products. So this is a huge software offering. And you can bundle them or you can go bare bones. But that's what the business does. They have millions of paid subscribers across 180 countries. So let's go back in time. The year is 1982. in time the year is 1982 and Autodesk released their product called AutoCAD many people listening might be familiar with AutoCAD or have heard of AutoCAD so AutoCAD was released for these micro computers with these graphics controllers that were inside the machine, for the first time internal to the machine. And the term CAD, computer aided design was born. So they used to run on this mainframe computer with external
Starting point is 00:30:52 graphics. And so this was this was an innovative product offering. So this, their flagship product autocad released in 1982 is still a huge flagship and is a behemoth in aec it is still to this day a behemoth in aec whether you are designing in a manufacturing plant you're building layouts for how the how the floor is going to look or you're an architect doing blueprints how the floor is going to look, or you're an architect doing blueprints. AutoCAD is still king. So all these years later. So Autodesk's main revenue streams come from AEC, which is 60% of sales, manufacturing, which is 30% of sales, and then media entertainment, which is 10%. So in the short term to medium term,
Starting point is 00:31:56 there are a couple of growth levers that they've been pulling over the last three to five years that have resulted in high 20%, like 27% revenue growth over the last two years. And they can continue to pull these growth levers for years to come, in my mind. And the first one is converting non-compliant users to subscriptions, which I'm going to get to. There's a huge opportunity still in manufacturing, and they can continue to take more market share with their other software products in AEC. So I was talking about non-compliant users so since autocad and autodesk products have been around for so long like since the beginning of the personal computer there's so many users around the world that are that have the software who are not paying for it and so this might sound like bad news, and that's, well, it kind of is. But the good news is that Autodesk knows exactly who they are and where they live and what platform they're on, what suite they're using.
Starting point is 00:32:58 And there's 12 million of them. There's 12 million users out there right now who are using the product and are not paying. They've basically pirated the software. So they think that they can convert in the next five years, 7 million of them. And these 7 million people have at least four active sessions on the product every 90 days so they are using the product um so these are they're relying on it for business purposes so that helps autodesks like beta b2b software is really really sticky and autodesk is that uh they have these non-compliant users on a licensing model, which is key. A licensing model is how most software companies used to run their business and have now moved
Starting point is 00:33:53 into the cloud via software as a service. So this transition kind of sucked like mid 2010s, 2015 to 2017, they're doing this licensing model to software as a service transition and it was not pretty for the business for a while but once it was complete now we're seeing the business really really accelerate especially on their financials autodesk has 90 gross gross margins. Like, that is unbelievable. And this is the reason why people buy software businesses is because there's recurring revs and high gross margins and high net retention.
Starting point is 00:34:38 And this turns into a cash flow machine and they turn 41% of revenue into free cash flow. So very, very profitable cash flowing model. This is what we like to see. So they think if they can continue to monetize these non-compliant users, keep grabbing market share and manufacturing, continued growth in AEC, we're looking at a post-SAS transition from the old licensing model. You can expect juicy margins to continue and high double digit at the medium to 30% revenue growth, I expect, and analysts expect as well. So the business is not cheap.
Starting point is 00:35:26 You are paying up for a very high-quality business with a fat moat, like super fat moat, with industrial applications. And another thing that I really like about the business is they're growing the free trial type freemium model for hobbyists as well. So you can go on the site and get like non-commercial use versions of many of the software applications. And this creates an ecosystem that I think is actually understated for the business so that when you go on YouTube, if you are a, uh,
Starting point is 00:36:09 like a paying user, like the AutoCAD subscription is thousands of dollars a year or even a month, perhaps, uh, depending on, you know, how big the stack you get from them is, um, this ecosystem. So like, say you are one of those users, you go to YouTube and there's all these guides. And the reason why that's important is like, there's this AutoCAD university for people to learn. It takes years and years to learn this software. And then it's super sticky. Like if
Starting point is 00:36:37 you're an architect and you've spent like two decades learning AutoCAD, you're not going to just switch to some other service or some other software. And so what I was mentioning about this ecosystem is there's all these guides and how to's and these hobbyists are driving a lot of that. And the barrier to entry for them to get onto the software is getting lower and lower as Autodesk transitions to this more modern freemium model, and then commercial is super, super expensive. So all this to say, it's the third largest position in my portfolio. I love the business.
Starting point is 00:37:18 I'm an engineer by background, so I understand the landscape of their position in the marketplace. And I plan on holding it for a long, long time to come, Simon. So here we are. Yeah, I mean, I don't know the business as well as you do, but I'm definitely familiar with the software. When I grew up, my dad was a technologist in architecture, so he used it all the time and and took him a while to learn it because he used to do drawings by hand back in the day but when he did I totally agree with you there's no
Starting point is 00:37:52 there's no other software really that compares with it and the switching costs for him just learning I think would have been the biggest impediment for it so I think it's I think you're right it's a really good business and as those users that are not paying for it. So I think it's I think you're right. It's a really good business. And as those users that are not paying for it, I'm sure they'll be updating the software over time, there's probably going to be functionalities that they won't have with those, whatever expired licenses or pirated software. I think organically, people will probably just not have a choice to switch because they'll need those new functionalities to to do whatever work they they were doing with that's right yeah once you are in that ecosystem uh it is
Starting point is 00:38:34 it's primarily a monopoly like and they work with other companies like ansys ansys is another company who services the very similar verticals for modeling and these kinds of other things that engineering firms might subscribe to. But they have partnerships with Ansys and companies like SolidWorks. They have different offerings, slightly more 3D, whereas the 3D program for architects on autodesk is called revit and i have buddies that are in civil engineering and mechanical engineering they they are literally on revit for eight hours a day so it is so so essential It's so critical, like mission critical for a lot of these businesses. And that's what I like to see. And 41.6% median free cash flow margin is like MasterCard numbers.
Starting point is 00:39:37 You don't see this in the market. No. These are hard to find. Those don't exist very often. Yeah, the magic words with the two business that we talked about stickiness yeah exactly and uh once you're in them like switching costs or get out of here like there's no way if i'm an architect and i've been working on something for 20 years or like for your example, if you're at the
Starting point is 00:40:05 DEA and you're like, I know exactly how to use Axon software. It's like, and this is why people like software, right? This is exactly why some investors only buy tech companies because it's really sticky and the margins are high as hell. So I can understand from that perspective, but I think we should take a step back. Both of these businesses traded well over 15 times sales. Yeah. They're not cheap. They're not cheap. They're not cheap. Right. So we got it. We got to mention that like these, these companies are not cheap, but you have to pay off for quality sometimes. Um, but you run this risk, right? This is what's important to mention. In any bull case that we're talking about, you got to understand that if there is multiple compression, like that X sales
Starting point is 00:40:58 number goes down, the business could know crushing it and your returns could be nothing so this is something to consider all right guys what i was talking about all these numbers i had on a deep dive from autodesks on the website every top pick from stratosphere i have a deep dive and iodesk on the website. Every top pick from Stratosphere, I have a deep dive, and I'm developing that database right now. So people who go to the site, and they see Autodesk, for instance, as a top pick, I have this primer, this article, this prime, this photos, there's just, you know, it's not, it's not boring for people to understand what the business is because you can't, you cannot go buy businesses, go buy stocks and act like a long-term investor
Starting point is 00:41:53 if you don't know what the company does. And I am seeing this more and more each day that passes. Short-term traders jumping into businesses that they couldn't even tell you how they make a quick buck they couldn't even tell you what the ceo's name is they couldn't even tell you how you know where where their costs come from this is essential you have to know the business You have to know the business. You have to know the business. Yeah. Should I say it again? It's definitely got to know the business. Yeah. And now your site is great for that too, in terms of getting the access really quickly,
Starting point is 00:42:36 really encourage you guys to go and have a look. I think you have a free trial, right? For, for people. Yeah. It's a free trial. Yeah. So it's a free trial yeah so it's a free trial just give it a try see if you like it if you want to take a break from it you know if you haven't given us a review yet take a break from the website go give us a review it helps people find us uh get some message out there but uh totally echo that uh the uh the software is really uh the search engine is really great and gives you a lot of data on the business just at your fingertips. So it's worth just to try it out for free. And I'm sure you'll like it. There it is. Said it from the man himself. All right, guys, go give us a review. Five stars. Let us know what you think on the show. And you can drop a voice message. People have been doing
Starting point is 00:43:24 that. So we're gonna do a mailbag. Yeah's coming soon yeah coming soon we will yeah we will uh we'll do that soon we'll see you guys next week guys take care bye-bye the canadian investor is not to be taken as investment advice braden or simone may own securities mentioned on this podcast always make sure to do your own research and due diligence before making investment decisions

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