Investment Pitches

Pitch Summary:
Insulet’s innovative tubeless insulin pump technology addresses a substantial unmet need, with strong potential for growth beyond the Type 1 diabetes segment into the underpenetrated Type 2 diabetes market. The significant scale and technological complexities associated with manufacturing tubeless insulin pumps make it difficult for competitors to replicate and help the company maintain its leadership position.

BSD Analysis:
Insulet remains a standout in diabetes tech, with the Omnipod franchise still taking share despite GLP-1 noise. The recurring revenue model is sticky, margins are improving, and international expansion is strong. Bears overstate competitive risk — simplicity and user loyalty give Insulet a defensible moat. The stock got punished on sentiment, not fundamentals. As the GLP-1 panic fades, growth should prove more durable than feared. Execution remains solid and the TAM is still massive. PODD looks mispriced for a category leader.

Pitch Summary:
StandardAero operates in the aerospace aftermarket and MRO space, where the company’s scale and reputation are clear advantages given the industry’s high barriers to entry. StandardAero’s resilient business model, combined with experienced leadership and a disciplined M&A approach, positions the company well to take advantage of near-term tailwinds from aging fleets, as well as secular growth in aerospace demand.

BSD Analysis:
StandardAero is a powerhouse in aircraft-engine MRO with deep OEM ties and technical capabilities that give it massive switching-cost advantages. Commercial flight hours are ramping, business aviation is stable, and defense is resilient — giving the company a three-engine growth mix. Margins are strong and improving as supply chains heal. The MRO space has high barriers and annuity-like recurring revenue. StandardAero is a cash machine disguised as a maintenance shop. Whether an IPO or sale comes next, the business hits every mark of a premium aerospace-services platform. A quiet giant with real private-market scarcity value.

Pitch Summary:
For a company born out of ‘Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing,’ ending up in wound dressings, sterilization checks and health-IT is not the most linear of journeys. 3M’s name reflects its 1902 origins as a failed corundum mining venture that pivoted into abrasives and, over the century, into a broad portfolio of industrial, healthcare and consumer products. A diversified and well-respected company, 3M has for decades been seen as a bellwether for the US economy for decades. Over the past few years, however, 3M has been weighed down by litigation around its historic production of polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are water-, oil- and heat-resistant chemicals that was manufactured by 3M until 2022 and which has found to be toxic. These substances, sometimes referred to as ‘forever chemicals’ have been found in rivers and water systems across the world, and 3M is facing large financial settlements in the court system. To create some financial breathing space, 3M spun off its health care products business in April 2024. This spin off, named Solventum, paid a midnight dividend of approximately USD 8b to 3M, cutting its parent’s net debt from over USD 11b to USD 3b, a much more manageable figure for a business producing USD 5-6b in operating income. There was also some industrial logic to the action: innovation is more important in the healthcare supply business than in the industrial and consumer businesses 3M operates, and is also less cyclical. By separating Solventum, 3M allowed the business to pursue a new capital allocation strategy. Solventum inherits brands and know-how that were long embedded in 3M Health Care. It organizes around four operating areas: Medical Surgical (infection prevention, wound care, sterilization assurance), Dental Solutions, Health Information Systems (coding, revenue cycle, analytics), and Purification & Filtration. Shortly after listing, management moved to reshape that portfolio: in February 2025 Solventum agreed to sell the Purification & Filtration unit to Thermo Fisher for about USD 4.1 billion, with proceeds earmarked chiefly for debt reduction. We like Solventum for a number of reasons, quite apart from its valuation. 3M Health Care was historically 3M’s most profitable business as well as its most stable. The business grew its sales organically at a rate of over 4% over the past seventeen years and even in 2009, when 3M’s sales fell 7.7% organically, the business grew at over 2%—a testament to the non-cyclical nature of Solventum’s end markets. The company’s financial inheritance was far from ideal, with a balance sheet stretched with debt and with significant investment requirements in order to separate Solventum from the rest of 3M’s manufacturing and distribution operations. But the sale of the purification & filtration business should take leverage down to a much more comfortable 2-2.5x net debt/EBITDA, leaving Solventum with room to invest in the rest of the business to help it stand up as an independent entity and re-ignite the innovation growth engine. CEO Bryan Hanson has a clear strategy for the company. His plan has three visible pillars: simplify the portfolio (e.g., the filtration divestiture as well as a SKU reduction programme which has presented a near term headwind to sales), lift execution and cost efficiency (‘Solventum Way’ restructuring, including headcount reductions and operating discipline), and concentrate resources in categories where the company has defensible positions and can take market share. Additionally, once the necessary investments have been made, Solventum are targeting 80% free cash flow conversion, which will provide room for management to distribute cash to shareholders via buybacks or, as was the case when it was part of 3M, with regular dividends. Activist pressure has helped sharpen and pressured the acceleration of Hanson’s agenda at Solventum. Nelson Peltz’s Trian disclosed a significant stake in mid-2024 and has argued for further simplification, including evaluating separation of dental and software assets to concentrate on the medical surgical core, alongside deeper cost work. The Thermo Fisher transaction and debt pay-down align with that posture. There is much work yet to do at Solventum before it earns its stripes as a stable compounder: it needs to demonstrate its ability to grow its organic business by re-igniting the new product innovation culture that 3M used to be famous for. It needs to continue the (so far successful) global ERP implementation, and it needs to continue to build out its manufacturing and distribution abilities as an independent company, all while navigating some pretty hefty M&A activity. But we are encouraged by the early signs of management’s ability to execute on these multiple operational tasks, and look forward to seeing how the company progresses in the coming years.

BSD Analysis:
Solventum inherits the best parts of 3M’s healthcare segment — high-recurring consumables, sticky hospital relationships, and a steady global customer base. Freed from 3M’s legal overhangs, the business now gets to stand on its own as a clean, cash-generative medical supplier. Margins are already improving under more focused leadership. Growth is modest, but extremely reliable. Investors still treat Solventum like a spun-off problem child, not a solid healthcare platform. Over time, the steady fundamentals should force a rerating. A defensive med-tech name with surprising upside.

Pitch Summary:
Arista Networks benefited from continued AI infrastructure buildout, driving outstanding revenue growth. Strength in enterprise demand complements hyperscale data center momentum. Madison trimmed the position slightly after strong outperformance but maintains conviction in Arista’s durable competitive position and secular tailwinds.

BSD Analysis:
Arista remains the premier vendor for cloud data-center networking, riding AI and east-west traffic growth with unparalleled product execution. EOS software and merchant-silicon strategy deliver superior margins and rapid iteration. Hyperscaler wallet share keeps expanding, and enterprise demand is accelerating as companies upgrade to next-gen architectures. The valuation isn’t cheap, but the fundamentals are elite. Arista is becoming as indispensable as the CPUs and GPUs it connects.

Pitch Summary:
Amphenol’s shares advanced sharply as demand from AI-related data centers, defense, and industrial end markets surged. The company continues to surprise investors with strong revenue growth, benefiting from broad end-market exposure and disciplined cost control. The firm’s diversified product mix and consistent capital allocation make it a core compounder within the mid-cap space.

BSD Analysis:
Amphenol keeps proving its status as a connector empire, with broad exposure across autos, communications, aerospace, industrials, and defense — giving it a diversified growth engine. Its decentralized model and relentless M&A discipline create strong cash flow and durable margin expansion. APH benefits directly from electrification, data-center buildout, and embedded electronics proliferation. Quiet, efficient, and consistently compounding — the exact profile long-term investors crave.

Pitch Summary:
Medpace posted accelerating revenue and bookings growth in 2Q 2025, defying industry expectations of a slowdown in contract research activity. Management expressed confidence in continued strength for the remainder of the year, citing robust demand and operational execution. The company’s asset-light model and strong balance sheet enable high returns on invested capital. Madison sees Medpace as a best-in-class CRO with a long runway for growth as outsourcing trends expand.

BSD Analysis:
Medpace continues to post best-in-class growth in clinical outsourcing, driven by biotech-heavy clients that value its speed, accountability, and clean execution. Margins remain exceptional due to disciplined cost control and a tightly integrated operating model. Backlog visibility is strong, and cash generation is outstanding. The stock always looks expensive — and Medpace always grows into it. This remains one of the most consistent small-mid CRO compounders in the world.

Pitch Summary:
We initiated a position in Charles River Labs in Q3. CRL is a high-quality company in the drug discovery and development outsourcing space with a broad range of services from basic research to contract manufacturing. The company has operating margins of 20% or more and generates substantial free cash flow. The past few years have been challenging for companies in the drug development space, as capital has become increasingly constrained and research and development spending has remained stagnant. However, CRL has the operating history and mix of businesses to be successful over the long term. The customer base is diverse and CRL benefits from the increased dynamics of outsourcing by its biopharmaceutical clients. The company’s top line has grown at a 12% compound annual rate over the last 10 years, even with the recent downturn. Management is solid, and we’ve known them for decades. We believe Charles River’s earnings power can reach approximately $15 in 2028, assuming modest growth. We also use a sum of the parts at ~12x EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) to assess the attractiveness of CRL. This implies an intrinsic value of $228. Importantly, we think we are being conservative, as we don’t build in a resumption of double-digit revenue growth in our valuation framework. However, we anticipate revenue growth of 4% from 2024 to 2028 and a modest margin recovery, aided by restructuring and cost-outs.

BSD Analysis:
Charles River still sits at the center of preclinical drug development, with scale and scientific breadth that smaller CROs can’t touch. Biopharma funding softness has created noise, but backlog quality and specialty services remain strong. Regulatory overhangs have moderated, and margins are improving as capacity normalizes. Despite temporary headwinds, CRL remains a mission-critical partner in the pharma value chain. The stock is priced for stagnation; the business is anything but.

Pitch Summary:
Small cap initiated on Eagle Materials, a leading U.S. manufacturer of heavy construction materials such as Portland cement, concrete, and aggregates, and light building materials such as wallboard and recycled paperboard. We view Eagle as an excellent company with very attractive financial traits. EXP aligns well with our preference for high-quality holdings, given its strong margins, high return on invested capital (ROIC), and return on equity (ROE). With the residential construction cycle in a prolonged downturn, we see this as a timely opportunity to invest in Eagle. Demand for wallboard has been declining for several years, and operating rates for the industry are in the 70s, which means they have a lot of excess capacity. Investors, while somewhat mollified by the resiliency of the business, have lost patience with many construction-exposed names. During the downturn, Eagle has gained market share due to its geographical footprint and cost-competitive wallboard assets. Further, we believe we are close to a bottom in residential construction demand, and at this price, we are willing to be patient for the cycle to turn. Management is excellent and allocates capital very judiciously with copious share buybacks. Our current intrinsic value estimate does not assume meaningful margin expansion and has relatively conservative buyback assumptions. We calculate intrinsic value at $269/share.

BSD Analysis:
Eagle Materials remains one of the purest plays on U.S. construction and infrastructure, with cement and wallboard assets delivering elite margins and tight capacity discipline. Pricing power is exceptional as supply remains constrained nationwide. The balance sheet is pristine, cash generation is strong, and management remains allergic to empire-building — a rare combo in materials. With infrastructure and manufacturing investment accelerating, Eagle is set up for another multi-year stretch of steady compounding.

Pitch Summary:
The small cap team initiated a new investment position in Hexcel Corporation. Hexcel is a global leader in advanced composite materials, specializing in the production of carbon fiber reinforcements, resin systems, and honeycomb structures. These materials are critical for lightweight, high-performance applications, particularly in the commercial aerospace, space, and defense sectors. Hexcel’s products are used in aircraft frames, wings, engines, and other structural components, offering strength and durability while significantly reducing weight. Major clients include aerospace giants like Airbus and Boeing. We like the duopoly market structure and deep moats of Hexcel’s business. The cycle has been in a prolonged downtrend due to the COVID supply chain shocks, creating bottlenecks in engines and the struggles of Boeing and Spirit Aerosystems. We believe these headwinds are now largely behind us. The competitive moats in this business are significant. Capital intensity is relatively high, while incumbency and vertical integration provide a huge competitive advantage. Certification in wing and fuselage requires massive regulatory approval, which leads to even higher switching costs. Furthermore, the industry has a benign competitive structure, with Japanese firm Toray being the only other direct, scaled composite material competitor, having a combined share in wing and fuselage that approaches 90% and holding sole-sourced positions with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). We believe the intrinsic value for this franchise is $85.

BSD Analysis:
Hexcel’s duopoly with Toray and entrenched certifications provide durable competitive advantage. Aerospace build rates are set to expand through 2028, driving mid-teens EPS growth and strong FCF conversion. Trading near 20× forward earnings, shares still underprice full-cycle earnings normalization and secular composite penetration in defense.

Pitch Summary:
At the portfolio level, the strongest contributor this month was Wix.com (+24.3%), which benefited as concerns around ‘vibe coding’s’ impact on website builders eased. We continue to believe these concerns are misplaced and that ‘vibe coding’ solutions are unlikely to disrupt website builders like Wix. Whilst they may allow for quicker development in some cases, there is not much consideration for code quality and problems persist when it comes to functionality, security and customer service.

BSD Analysis:
Wix has quietly transformed into a high-quality software platform with real margin leverage, strong ARR growth, and deeper monetization across payments and e-commerce. The shift to a premium, developer-friendly product suite is expanding ARPU. Operating leverage is finally hitting the P&L, turning WIX into a credible FCF compounder. Despite this, the valuation remains below SaaS peers with weaker economics. Underrated structural winner.

Pitch Summary:
SiteMinder’s recent Investor Day confirmed the company’s strong growth momentum and the scale of its long-term opportunity. Management highlighted robust unit economics, with customer lifetime value to customer acquisition cost (LTV/CAC) exceeding 5 times across all core regions. This is a clear signal of healthy growth and strong product-market fit. It stands out compared to other high-growth businesses, where unit economics remain uneven in some markets.
The greatest opportunity lies in the Smart Platform, which has the potential to increase value capture from 0.3% of gross booking value (GBV) today to 1.5% over time. This represents a possible fivefold uplift from current transaction products. Smart Platform products combine subscription-like gross margins with relatively modest costs to upsell, delivering strong incremental margins. As adoption grows, unit economics are expected to strengthen further. Together, these factors position SiteMinder for sustained growth and significant value creation in the years ahead.

BSD Analysis:
SiteMinder owns the connectivity layer for hotels, enabling bookings and channel management across the entire travel ecosystem. ARR is climbing, churn is low, and upsell into payments is just beginning to unlock margin expansion. The TAM remains underpenetrated, especially among independent hotels. Small-cap status keeps it off most radars, but SiteMinder is building a sticky, high-recurring global SaaS platform.

Pitch Summary:
KSPI continues to lag peers despite improving fundamentals, trading at roughly 7x earnings, a substantial discount to other dominant regional e-commerce platforms. Although the company reported earnings above Street expectations, investor focus remains on Kaspi’s expansion into Turkey. Its Turkish subsidiary, Hepsiburada, delivered its first full quarterly results since the acquisition, posting 42% year-over-year EBITDA growth. In addition, the pending Robobank acquisition, expected to close in the second half of the year, should further strengthen Kaspi’s position in the digital lending ecosystem, following a similar playbook to its success in Kazakhstan. We remain confident in management’s ability to execute and scale its platform effectively in Turkey.

BSD Analysis:
Kaspi is a fintech–commerce–payments super-app that dominates Kazakhstan with margins and growth rates that rival the best EM platforms. The ecosystem lock-in is deep, cross-sell is strong, and lending quality is surprisingly robust. Political noise keeps foreign investors away, creating a massive valuation disconnect. Kaspi is one of the highest-quality EM compounders that few global investors own.

Pitch Summary:
Centrus Energy (LEU.NYSE), the only U.S. domestic nuclear refiner working towards HALEU capability, a critical bottleneck for U.S. nuclear and SMR development

BSD Analysis:
Centrus is one of the most compelling nuclear fuel stories globally, offering rare exposure to HALEU enrichment at a moment when the U.S. government urgently needs domestic supply. The tech is real, the demand is locked in, and geopolitical urgency gives Centrus huge strategic leverage. Execution risk remains, but the upside if HALEU commercialization accelerates is enormous. This is a pure-play nuclear renaissance winner.

Pitch Summary:
Our “Tension Basket” aims to capture this structural shift, featuring select companies from both sides positioned to benefit from the convergence of technological realignment and economic nationalism. Current holdings include ACM Research (ACMR.NASDAQ), China’s leading wafer-fab cleaning equipment manufacturer; Centrus Energy (LEU.NYSE), the only U.S. domestic nuclear refiner working towards HALEU capability, a critical bottleneck for U.S. nuclear and SMR development; and a Taiwanese semiconductor cooling solution provider.

BSD Analysis:
ACM is scaling hard in semiconductor cleaning tools, riding China’s domestic chip-equipment push with strong backlog visibility. Margins are improving as the company gains share against entrenched Western competitors. Regulatory headwinds are the risk, but ACM’s tech is legitimate and demand remains robust. If export restrictions don’t tighten dramatically, ACMR is a high-growth semi-cap name trading at a fraction of its global peers.

Pitch Summary:
Despite limited analyst coverage, UI has drawn growing investor attention as its share price reached an all-time high, making it one of the top performers on the NYSE this year, with gains of more than 100% year-to-date. The company continues to expand its suite of enterprise networking solutions. Its higher-margin and higher-ticket enterprise segment has significantly improved operating leverage and profitability. In the most recent quarter, revenue grew 49.6% year-over-year, while adjusted earnings more than doubled. Management also demonstrated confidence in the company’s outlook by raising the quarterly cash dividend for the first time in years and announcing a new $500 million share repurchase program. We believe Ubiquiti will continue to benefit from secular tailwinds, such as rising bandwidth demand, IoT proliferation, and the shift toward connected infrastructure, making it an attractive long-term investment.

BSD Analysis:
Ubiquiti remains one of the most idiosyncratic — and underappreciated — networking companies in the market. The product velocity and community-driven model consistently deliver margin-rich growth. Supply-chain normalization is lifting results, and UniFi’s ecosystem keeps expanding. Transparency issues keep the multiple low, but the business itself is a cash machine. Buying UI requires a strong stomach, but fundamentals are elite.

Pitch Summary:
Tencent reported a 15% year-over-year revenue increase with improving margins. Advertising growth was driven by AI-enhanced targeting, while gaming revenue remained strong due to new title launches. The fund expects continued profit expansion as Tencent scales AI tools and diversifies monetization.

BSD Analysis:
Tencent keeps proving its resilience, with gaming strength, disciplined cost control, and a rapidly scaling cloud/fintech ecosystem driving a cleaner, higher-margin earnings profile. Advertising growth is snapping back as performance ad tools improve, and the company’s mini-program ecosystem continues to expand wallet share. Investments in AI and cloud are finally showing commercial traction. Despite these improvements, the stock remains weighed down by regulatory overhangs that are increasingly backward-looking. With a fortified balance sheet, strong cash generation, and multiple engines of compounding, Tencent remains undervalued relative to its fundamentals.

Pitch Summary:
Alphabet’s stock surged following a favorable antitrust ruling that avoided a forced breakup. Remedies such as opening search index access and ending exclusivity agreements were viewed as manageable. Its enterprise AI platform Gemini now has three times the user base of ChatGPT. The company’s strength in cloud, advertising, and AI integration underscores resilience.

BSD Analysis:
Alphabet is quietly executing one of the most comprehensive AI transitions in big tech, integrating Gemini across Search, YouTube, and Workspace in ways that directly enhance monetization. Google Cloud’s growth and margin expansion remain underrated, and it’s becoming a legitimate enterprise AI platform. YouTube continues to compound via CTV, premium content, and creator monetization, providing another multi-year tailwind. Alphabet’s cost discipline remains sharp, lifting operating leverage even as the company pours billions into AI infrastructure. With one of the deepest data moats and a surprisingly reasonable valuation, Alphabet remains a long-duration compounder investors chronically underprice.

Pitch Summary:
Thermo Fisher delivered results modestly above expectations, but management’s outlook for 2026–2027 signaled accelerating organic revenue growth (3–6% in 2026, 7% beyond 2027). Investors had feared further slowdown, and shares rallied on the update. The company remains a key beneficiary of renewed R&D budgets and long-term healthcare innovation trends.

BSD Analysis:
Thermo Fisher remains indispensable across biotech and pharma workflows, with a diversified portfolio that mitigates volatility in any single end market. After a post-COVID digestion phase, core lab products, analytical instruments, and CDMO services are showing signs of reacceleration. Margin structure remains robust thanks to scale, pricing discipline, and high recurring revenue from consumables. The stock’s multiple compressed during the hangover, creating one of the cleaner long-term entry points for a high-quality life-sciences platform. TMO remains a secular winner with deep competitive moats.

Pitch Summary:
Elevance Health was added to replace UnitedHealth after governance issues surfaced there. It offers a similar regulated-market advantage with lower legal risk. Management has delivered steady earnings growth, expanding margins, and consistent capital returns. The company benefits from the secular trend of rising healthcare expenditures and aging demographics.

BSD Analysis:
Elevance continues to outperform the managed-care pack, with underwriting discipline, strong commercial performance, and a services engine (Carelon) that keeps expanding margins. Medical cost trends remain well-contained, and the company’s diversified book provides stability through regulatory noise. Cash generation is excellent, and capital deployment stays disciplined. Despite this consistency, ELV trades below its long-term earnings power. As visibility improves and services mix rises, Elevance remains a best-in-class health-insurance compounder.

Pitch Summary:
The portfolio’s Health Care holdings … include Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a US company that has a near-monopoly position in cystic-fibrosis treatments and a research-and-development engine that offers optionality on future drugs; Vertex’s earnings should compound about 15% annually over the next five years.

BSD Analysis:
Vertex continues to compound at an elite level, with its cystic fibrosis franchise delivering cash flow that gives it unmatched optionality in next-gen programs. The pain program and sickle-cell therapies represent transformational upside — and early clinical and regulatory signals point in the right direction. Margins remain exceptional, and the balance sheet is pristine. While the pipeline beyond CF was once the bear case, Vertex is steadily proving it can extend its dominance into new therapeutic categories. With multiple near-commercial assets and a best-in-class R&D engine, VRTX remains one of biotech’s highest-quality compounders.