Investment Pitches

Pitch Summary:
Despite recent setbacks in Alzheimer's trials, Novo Nordisk remains a strong investment due to its robust pipeline, market leadership in diabetes care, and undervalued stock price.

BSD Analysis:
Novo Nordisk's recent failure in Alzheimer's trials was anticipated, and the company is not reliant on these results for its success. The company's core business in diabetes and obesity treatments continues to perform well, with promising developments in other therapeutic areas such as chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular risk. The stock's current low valuation, combined with its strong revenue growth and potential new product launches, presents a compelling investment opportunity. The market's reaction to the trial results appears to be driven more by sentiment than fundamentals, suggesting potential for a rebound as sentiment improves. Novo Nordisk's dividend yield also provides an attractive income stream for investors.

Pitch Summary:
Analog Devices, Inc. is positioned to benefit from technological advancements in electric vehicles and low earth orbiting satellites. The company has consistently delivered strong financial performance and shareholder returns through dividends and stock buybacks. Its strategic acquisitions and expansion into subsystem solutions enhance its growth prospects.

BSD Analysis:
Analog Devices has demonstrated resilience and adaptability in the face of market challenges, such as tariff impacts and potential AI market fluctuations. The company's robust cash flow and financial management allow it to maintain a strong position in the semiconductor industry. Its focus on emerging technologies and infrastructure electrification positions it well for future growth. Despite geopolitical risks, ADI's diversified industry presence and strategic initiatives provide a solid foundation for continued success.

Pitch Summary:
QQQI is a high-income ETF that has consistently delivered yields exceeding 10% since its inception. It employs a unique strategy by writing covered calls and using a portion of the premiums to purchase out-of-the-money call options, allowing for some upside potential. This strategy has resulted in a total return of 30.9% since inception, outperforming many peers.

BSD Analysis:
QQQI's strategy of combining covered calls with call spreads allows it to generate substantial income while retaining some upside potential, making it attractive in a low-risk-free rate environment. The ETF has paid 21 consecutive distributions, averaging $0.61 per share, and has a 14.03% yield based on the current share price. In 2025, it generated a 12.6% yield on its share price, outperforming the S&P 500's 12.45% return. With big tech trading at low valuations, QQQI is well-positioned for growth, especially as risk-free assets decline. The ETF's top holdings are undervalued compared to traditional consumer staples, suggesting further potential for appreciation.

Pitch Summary:
Meta Platforms is a buy due to its strong ad business performance, AI-driven growth, and recent valuation dip. Despite rising CAPEX and regulatory risks, the company's investments in AI are yielding immediate benefits, positioning it for future growth.

BSD Analysis:
Meta's Q3 earnings report showed significant revenue and user base growth, driven by its ad business and AI advancements. The company's AI-powered ad tools are enhancing targeting capabilities, supporting pricing power, and extending its growth runway. Despite concerns over high CAPEX and regulatory challenges, Meta's investments in AI infrastructure are expected to deliver real-time benefits, unlike previous speculative ventures. The market's current EPS growth expectations may be conservative, as Meta's monetization strategies are likely to yield long-term gains. The stock's recent sell-off presents a buying opportunity, with a potential upside of over 24% in the next year.

Pitch Summary:
W. P. Carey Inc. has successfully transformed its business model by spinning off weaker assets, reducing debt, and focusing on industrial properties with strong leases. This strategic shift has improved its growth prospects and valuation, positioning it for long-term success.

BSD Analysis:
W. P. Carey Inc. stands out in the net lease REIT sector due to its longer average lease terms, CPI-based rent escalations, and focus on industrial properties. The company's ability to secure off-market deals and its leadership in the European market provide a competitive edge. Despite a recent dividend cut, the company's strategic transformation has led to improved growth potential and a stronger financial position. With a current AFFO multiple of 13.3x and a dividend yield of 5.4%, W. P. Carey is well-positioned to deliver attractive returns. The company's focus on industrial properties aligns with the growing demand driven by e-commerce and onshoring trends.

Pitch Summary:
Philip Morris International remains a sound 'Buy' due to its strong fundamentals, high profitability, and attractive valuation. Despite a higher share price, the company's robust growth in smoke-free products and pricing power in combustibles make it a compelling investment for potentially strong total returns.

BSD Analysis:
Philip Morris International has demonstrated impressive growth in its smoke-free portfolio, with significant increases in products like IQOS, ZYN, and VEEV. The company's high margins are supported by pricing power and the inelasticity of its products. Despite trading above its historical P/E, the valuation is justified by accelerated revenue and earnings growth. The company's strong balance sheet, with an A- credit rating and a safe net debt-to-EBITDA ratio, further supports its investment case. Risks include potential regulatory changes and higher excise taxes, but the company's market leadership and growth prospects in smoke-free products provide a solid foundation for future performance.

Pitch Summary:
BQE Water is strategically positioned to transition from a period of exceptional one-off income to a sustainable growth trajectory, driven by the commissioning of a new SART plant in China, which secures a long-term revenue stream.

BSD Analysis:
The company's ability to compensate for the loss of non-recurring revenue from previous projects with new recurring revenue from the SART plant for Shandong Gold is crucial. The positive management outlook and strong momentum in technical services suggest that BQE Water can exceed forecasts. However, risks such as dependence on large customers and commodity price fluctuations remain. The company's asset-light business model allows for scalability and operational leverage, supporting accelerated EBITDA growth as new revenue streams are added.

Pitch Summary:
LightPath Technologies is strategically shifting from a component supplier to a vertically integrated provider of infrared optics and camera systems. This transformation is driven by their exclusive BlackDiamond chalcogenide glass, which offers a domestic alternative to germanium, enhancing supply chain resiliency. The company is well-positioned to benefit from geopolitical tensions and increased demand for military and security applications, with significant growth potential in both defense and civilian markets.

BSD Analysis:
LightPath's strategic move up the value chain is supported by smart acquisitions and a focus on high-value systems, particularly in the infrared imaging sector. The exclusive licensing of BlackDiamond glass from the US Naval Research Laboratory positions the company as a key player in reducing reliance on Chinese-controlled materials. With a record backlog and significant contracts in place, LightPath is poised for substantial growth. The company's collaboration with major defense contractors like Lockheed Martin further underscores its potential. However, the current valuation appears high, with shares trading at 5x sales, suggesting that investors are already pricing in future growth. The company's ability to execute on its strategy and convert its backlog into revenue will be critical to justifying its valuation.

Pitch Summary:
Carvana remains our largest position by far, and I continue to be amazed by the company’s execution – especially in contrast to others in the industry. Carmax reported disappointing results in late September, with same-store units declining -6.3% y/y. The company blamed its poor performance on customer pull forward and hangover dynamics around the auto tariff announcements earlier in the year. These growth issues were compounded by poor 2022-2023 vintage loan performance which required additional loss provisioning and further hurt earnings.
In contrast, we observe Carvana posting >45% y/y growth in the September quarter, exiting the quarter above +50% unit growth. If the industry is suffering from headwinds, Carvana does not appear to be feeling them. The company is adding variable roles in reconditioning and local delivery (“Market Operations”) at a blistering pace, with openings for such roles up 60% over the last 6 months. Since Carvana’s unit production volumes are constrained by the labor force powering its fixed infrastructure assets, changes in variable roles often signal the company’s growth intentions months before that growth shows up in third-party data.
It’s rare to find companies with such a powerful customer response and I expect to see continued disruptive growth for many years to come.

BSD Analysis:
Carvana pulled off one of the most improbable balance-sheet turnarounds in recent memory, slashing costs, squeezing gross profit, and stabilizing liquidity. Unit economics have improved dramatically as the company focuses on profitable volume instead of reckless expansion. Bears still don’t trust the story — rightfully — but the operating data keeps getting better. The equity remains a high-torque play on execution. If Carvana strings together consistent profitability, the multiple has room to explode higher. This is a high-wire act, but it’s no longer a death spiral. High risk, high torque, high narrative velocity.

Pitch Summary:
After a +40% August, Paymentus fell -22% in September and we used the selloff to increase our exposure to a 6% position, adding about +150 bps. The stock goes through a predictable rise-and-fall pattern whenever Accel-KKR distributes shares to its underlying GPs and LPs. Accel-KKR has distributed over 50 million shares in the last year. This significant new supply has entered the market and has kept the stock in a rather tight trading range since late 2024.
This is technical selling pressure that may continue for a few more quarters and while I hesitate to trade the chart too actively, we may use the technical selling pressure to top up our position opportunistically.

BSD Analysis:
Paymentus is carving out a real niche in bill-payment infrastructure with sticky enterprise clients and a platform built for recurring, transaction-driven revenue. Growth remains healthy despite noisy quarters. Margins have room to expand as scale improves. Competition exists, but Paymentus’ integrations give it durable positioning. The stock trades like a mid-tier fintech despite strong unit economics. With rising digital-bill-pay adoption, Paymentus has a long runway. An under-the-radar fintech grower.

Pitch Summary:
Finally, on a YTD basis, one need only look at QRHC’s chart to see that it has been a major detractor to our portfolio this year (ie why its no longer a top-five holding). This is one of our longest held stocks and it has more than “round tripped.” Now that it has better management operating with appropriate processes and controls, and trades at a lower multiple, owning more of this is a much more reasonable proposition. With one caveat: The wide gulf between the $80M in goodwill and the $35M market capitalization is most certainly going to trigger an annual impairment test. And given the “asset lite” nature of the business, and the way impairments are tested, if there were not an impairment charge I would be surprised. Though purely an accounting mechanism that has no impact on tangible book value or cash flow, Mr. Market hates impairment charges. The company will release year end results, likely in late February.

BSD Analysis:
Quest is a high-growth, asset-light environmental services company that is uniquely positioned to monetize the corporate push toward ESG and mandated recycling goals. The company's core value is its proprietary technology platform which offers clients a single point of contact for over 100 complex waste streams, dramatically simplifying compliance and logistics. This platform includes AI-powered AP automation solutions that audit vendor invoices at the line-item level, directly translating into measurable cost savings for major customers like large automotive service chains. By executing a ruthless "land and expand" strategy, Quest is securing multi-figure deals and capitalizing on a strong pipeline in emerging verticals like pro-organics and food waste diversion. Despite being a smaller player, the strength of its recurring, sticky revenue from multi-location corporate clients and its focus on zero-touch operational efficiency make it a compelling bet in the fragmented $70 billion industrial waste market.

Pitch Summary:
Moving onto PESI, after more than 30-years of planning and construction, the long-delayed vitrification plant at the Hanford nuclear site is now processing waste into glass. The start-up of the vitrification plant should at long last lead to increased volumes of secondary waste for processing at the Perma-Fix Northwest facility just outside the Hanford fence. The company expects to generate up to $2M in monthly revenues beginning in 2026, and then grow into an annuity-type business, likely for decades.

BSD Analysis:
The investment thesis for Perma-Fix is a high-growth play on the structural, multi-decade demand for nuclear waste and environmental remediation, capitalizing on a dramatic inflection in its profitability. The core value lies in its specialized Treatment Segment, which saw a 45% year-over-year revenue increase and a near doubling of gross margin to 17.3% in the latest quarter. This turnaround is driven by increasing volumes of high-margin international and commercial waste shipments and efficiency gains from plant optimization. A key long-term catalyst is the anticipated flow of multi-decade, high-volume recurring revenue from the US Department of Energy's (DOE) massive Hanford DFLAW program, which positions Perma-Fix as a critical commercial partner. Furthermore, the company is securing first-mover advantage in the emerging PFAS destruction market, where its proprietary Perma-Fast system is a cost-effective, zero-emission alternative to incineration. With a clean balance sheet and a conservative valuation, the stock is poised to re-rate significantly as backlog converts and the Services segment recovers from government-related project delays.

Pitch Summary:
RSSS also reported F1Q26 results, it’s seasonally slowest. It is growing and generating cash and helmed by an experienced C-suite and an impassioned product developer, the founder of Scite, which the company purchased in 2023. The company is broadly engaged in rights access to scientific literature; the legacy of the business is licensing libraries of scientific literature, bulk breaking that access and wrapping services around it. Given this description, it’s easy to extrapolate risks from disintermediation (publishers selling direct), from AI platforms that pay for rights and from open access scientific research. These at-hand reasons explain why this investment opportunity exists. There’s a different perspective. Unlike the world of politics and entertainment where we tolerate and accept fiction, the world of science relies on facts and therefore requires a higher level of curation than what’s available in other spheres. This is especially true in a world of open access where research is free and “paper mills” churn out fake articles. The need for a solution isn’t going away. The RSSS solution, Scite, differentiates itself by offering contextualized citation searches that includes whether underlying papers are supporting, contrasting or retracted, and they are building their brand around this capability. Is it a durable advantage? It’s impossible to say. This is still a small company in an industry seeing rapid development. I think our advantage is the quality of our experienced and entrepreneurial management team building a culture of growth and cash flow, and product development that tries to stay ahead of the customer.

BSD Analysis:
The core investment thesis for Research Solutions centers on its aggressive and successful transition from a legacy document delivery service to a high-growth, vertical SaaS and AI platform for the scientific research market. The company is actively compounding value by driving its high-margin Platforms revenue (up 21% YoY) to become a larger portion of the business mix, dramatically improving the blended gross margin to over 50%. Crucially, B2B Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) grew over 300% in the recent quarter, reflecting strong new customer generation and expansion within existing accounts. Management is focused on achieving the "Rule of 40" benchmark, having already driven a strong 16% Adjusted EBITDA growth and achieving a record $7.0 million in operating cash flow. This momentum is underpinned by its unique, publisher-independent platform that leverages AI-powered tools to accelerate discovery and manage research rights for major life science and corporate clients. Trading at a reasonable valuation for a SaaS player with strong unit economics, the stock is positioned for significant long-term multiple expansion as the high-margin platform fully eclipses the slower-growth transaction business.

Pitch Summary:
MTRX reported F1Q26 results (for period ending 9/31/25) that showed continued improvement in revenues leading to near-breakeven operations. This is a “metal bending” construction company focused on liquid and gas storage, industrial processing and energy / power assets. It is behind where we expected it would be at this point in the cycle, but continues to make progress towards profitability. As I’ve long said, one would need to analyze pre-COVID financials to understand the earnings power in the business. Few do, and therefore plenty of skeptical investors dismiss this idea. However, as revenues grow, the company should demonstrate better overhead recovery and margin expansion. If they can show profitability, which should come as soon as next quarter, I believe doubters will have to reconsider their thinking and “re-rate” the multiple, now less than 8x a “bad scenario” $20M in EBITDA (as a reminder, there’s $16M of EBITDA just from adding back D&A plus stock based comp).

BSD Analysis:
Matrix Service Company is an undervalued specialty industrial services company poised for a major EBITDA inflection as its multi-year, large-scale projects finally convert to revenue. The foundation of the thesis is a substantial $1.2 billion backlog and zero net debt, providing multi-year visibility and substantial financial resilience against macro volatility. Matrix is strategically positioned to capitalize on "megatrends" in energy and infrastructure, with growing exposure to LNG, ammonia, and utility grid upgrades. After a period of overhead under-recovery that masked profitability, management's operational realignment is successfully translating a 28% revenue increase into improving margins, with Adjusted EBITDA returning to positive territory. With fiscal 2026 revenue guidance projecting significant 14% to 20% growth, the stock is a compelling pure-play on domestic industrial CapEx and the energy transition investment cycle.

Pitch Summary:
We have been invested in PDEX for several years. It is a contract manufacturer with a niche software-embedded surgical tool for driving screws without stripping. It has a long history of incremental improvement, value creation, a raft of tailwinds and fewer than 4M shares outstanding, which they typically buy back opportunistically. I recently attended the shareholder meeting and appreciate the company’s incremental approach to long term strategic investment and value creation. Most compelling of all is our purchase price; in the low-$30’s it is trading at 8x trailing EBITDA and more than 50% below its 52-week high. With a depressed stock and catalysts on the horizon, my confidence in its likelihood of becoming a five year double warrants a concentrated position. It is now a top-five holding.

BSD Analysis:
Pro-Dex, Inc. is a specialty contract manufacturer and design firm focused on high-precision, powered surgical and dental devices, such as autoclavable surgical drivers. The company's niche moat lies in its expertise in embedded motion control and proprietary adaptive torque-limiting software for surgical handpieces, which are critical components for major medical OEMs. Recent performance shows strong financial momentum, with Q1 revenue surging 24% and net income more than doubling year-over-year. This growth is being driven by accelerating shipments of next-generation handpieces for key customers, validating the quality of its specialized engineering services. Despite external headwinds from tariffs and rising costs that pressured gross margins, the underlying demand for its niche products remains robust, signaling strong operational execution. With an EV/EBITDA of roughly 8.6x and consensus analyst targets suggesting 45%+ upside, the stock offers a compelling value proposition in the resilient medical device outsourcing market.

Pitch Summary:
Cogent’s management has usually gotten the better of Wall Street when consensus doesn’t align with their worldview of the Internet ecosystem. One notable period was the first decade of the 2000s. At a time when competitors were going bankrupt or deleveraging following the collapse of the Dot Com bubble, nearly every analyst under-appreciated the defining aspect of Cogent’s business that would become an incredible cornerstone of its defensive model; Last Mile access relationships. Corporations and consumers usually have little choice in how they connect to the Internet (last-mile access), which gives Cogent many of the characteristics of a monopolistic enterprise while maintaining the potential for high returns on capital. Under CEO Dave Schaeffer’s long tenured leadership he convinced building owners to let comparison shopping Internet access become an invaluable marketing tool, resulting in a portfolio of 3,500 “serviceable multi-tenant office buildings” according to the Wall Street Journal. CEO Schaeffer was refreshingly transparent compared to most executives. During his first Q2 ’09 earnings call, he spoke of hosting “lunch and learns,” where he’d take groups of investment professionals to visit buildings in New York to explain the value of its network back when the “dark fiber” narrative was still being built by management teams. These buildings often have upwards of 50 tenants and with Cogent’s very low prices and reliable broadband offerings the company has built customer trust and consequently multi-year or multi-contract lock-in periods. Over his tenure he’s lauded the fact that many of Cogent’s customers have been with them for more than 15 years. For the last few years, however, our team’s defensibility framework for CCOI or internet access trends have undergone shifts that increased our comfort with shorting the stock. First, the need for large fiber network conglomerates for terrestrial corporate broadband may have peaked. The IP Transit industry’s failure to sufficiently shift to more premium services or adjust to the growth in cloud networking has allowed hyperscalers to dominate and strip the business of economic profits. Second, Cogent’s acquisition of Sprint’s legacy Wireline assets came during an industry environment where legacy copper or terrestrial business broadband growth has stagnated while broadband commodification increases. Schaeffer sees this differently. During a recent conference he said that Sprint Wireline is “an asset that is probably 5x bigger than Cogent in revenue” and that he can “increase revenue by at least 10% we can grow Cogent’s revenue by 5x.” I would be more encouraged by the strategic rationale if Wireline provided a defensible component-based asset that FY26 can generate positive gross profit based on product line economics, but I’m skeptical of this. The bull case rationality would point to potential cost accretion, decommissioning legacy infrastructure, or greater backhaul volume through CCOI’s existing network, but I view that as challenging for Wireline’s legacy TDM voice and traditional IP Transit products. Our analysis suggests that organic growth is likely to continue to erode due to commodification, hyperscaler disintermediation, and declining economic profit pools. The enterprise segment likely remains challenged given growing competition from cable operators and rapidly evolving SD-WAN and SASE technologies that favor more agile network architectures. Further, we believe that the business is losing momentum based on our data regarding corporate tenant trends in many multi-tenant office buildings since 2020, notably in the technology sector. If long-term corporate broadband growth opportunities remain subdued, we suspect that Wireline might continue to be a drag on the overall business and that revenue expectations in the medium term are too optimistic for the stock. Despite management’s confidence in cost optimization levers and synergies from decommissioning legacy infrastructure, we remain skeptical about the timing and magnitude of these benefits. In addition, competition in on-net locations is increasing, and we believe that the remaining growth opportunities may require more capital intensity than the market expects. While management points to the Wireline acquisition as transformational, our view is that the integration will be challenging, and that the combined entity may struggle to deliver sustainable margin expansion. Ultimately, despite the company’s historical strengths in last-mile access and competitive pricing, the structural headwinds facing the enterprise internet access market—rising competition, commodification, and hyperscaler bypass—present significant risks to the bull case at current valuations.

BSD Analysis:
Cogent is a high-stakes, telecom arbitrage play, leveraging a brutally efficient integration to unlock massive hidden Free Cash Flow (FCF) power. The company's true value lies in the rapid scaling of its high-margin Wavelength services (up 93% YoY), driven by insatiable AI demand from hyperscalers who require rapid, high-capacity connectivity. This exponential growth, coupled with escalating IPV4 leasing revenue (up 55.5% YoY), is the single swing factor set to redefine the business model. Management has already realized the full $220 million in targeted Sprint cost synergies and is aggressively "grooming" low-margin customers, deliberately sacrificing near-term revenue for margin expansion (Adj. EBITDA margin hit 30.5%). The stock is currently penalized by the necessary, but painful, slashing of its dividend to pay down debt, a move that fundamentally enhances long-term equity value by prioritizing balance sheet repair. This cleaning of the book, alongside the sale of non-core data centers for $144 million, positions Cogent's unassailable fiber asset base for a massive FCF inflection. The market is mispricing the multi-year potential, creating a compelling entry point ahead of the inevitable re-rating.