Investment Pitches

Pitch Summary:
Another detractor was National Storage Affiliates Trust (NSA), a real-estate investment trust that owns and operates self-storage facilities. The outlook of higher-for-longer interest rates likely weighed on the stock. For National Storage, higher rates reduce home sales, which in turn reduces the need for storage space. However, we remain confident in the company’s long-term outlook and maintained our position. We like National Storage for several reasons: Its market is large and growing. The company also has opportunities to acquire smaller competitors. Additionally, we’re impressed with National Storage’s management team, which we’ve known for many years.

BSD Analysis:
National Storage Affiliates Trust (NSA) is a high-quality, high-yield self-storage REIT whose stock is a conviction bet on the non-cyclical, stable demand for storage space. The core moat is its massive, diversified portfolio of self-storage properties, which benefit from low operating costs and superior pricing power. The company utilizes a unique "PRO" (Participating Regional Operators) structure, which aligns management interests with shareholders and drives disciplined external growth. The stock is a defensive compounder, leveraging its operating model and non-cyclical demand to deliver superior, recurring dividend income.

Pitch Summary:
Among our long positions, the largest detractor from Fund performance was Champion Homes, Inc. (SKY). The company is one of the largest homebuilders in North America, specializing in modular homes for the single-family, multi-family and hospitality segments. Champion’s stock was down after company management reported weaker than expected quarterly operating results. High interest rates make home payments more expensive, so some of Champion’s customers are offsetting that expense by opting out of some of the higher-grade amenities within modular houses. This is a headwind for Champion’s earnings because those amenities tend to improve margins for the company. The short-term results haven’t changed our view of the company. In an environment where homebuilders face significant challenges, we were pleased to see Champion increase revenue 10.7% in its most recent quarter over the same period a year ago.

BSD Analysis:
Champion Homes is a high-growth, factory-built housing specialist whose stock is a conviction bet on the structural shift toward affordable housing solutions. The core thesis is driven by the massive affordability crisis in the U.S., which makes its manufactured, modular, and park model homes an increasingly non-discretionary alternative to site-built homes. The company's superior scale and efficient factory model allow it to deliver high-quality, energy-efficient housing at a 20%–50% lower cost than traditional builders. The stock is a high-conviction play on the long-term, non-cyclical demand for affordable single-family housing.

Pitch Summary:
Grid Dynamics Holdings, Inc. (GDYN) offers information-technology (IT) services including technical consulting, digital transformation, internet services operations and software development. The industry has experienced pressure as clients become more cautious about spending against an uncertain macroeconomic backdrop. In addition, sentiment around the broader IT outsourcing space has been challenged as investors digest the risks and opportunities presented by generative Al. While the company's fundamentals appear intact, we are actively working to understand the implications of Al for Weave's business model.

BSD Analysis:
Grid Dynamics is a high-growth, specialized digital transformation services pure-play whose stock is a conviction bet on the accelerating corporate need for AI and data modernization. The core moat is its deep expertise in cloud, AI, and data science, which allows it to secure high-value contracts with Fortune 1000 clients. The company is demonstrating superior financial performance, with revenue hitting $292 million in 2025, driven by strong client relationships and deep technical capabilities. The stock is a high-quality compounder, leveraging its technological specialization to capture non-cyclical IT spend for large-scale digital programs.

Pitch Summary:
Agilysys, Inc. (AGYS), a provider of property management and point-of-sale software for the hospitality industry, saw its stock rebound after it dipped in the prior quarter on disappointing results. We met with the CEO to try to better understand the company's challenges and came away convinced that the market had overreacted to short-term execution issues in migrating customers to a new product platform and to timing delays caused by a holiday. We took the opportunity to add to our holdings of a high-quality company and were rewarded as Agilysys posted strong earnings in the most recent quarter. We view the company as well positioned to continue to take market share going forward.

BSD Analysis:
Agilysys is a high-growth, specialized hospitality software pure-play whose stock is a conviction bet on the accelerating enterprise shift to cloud-native SaaS systems. The core moat is its dominance in providing mission-critical Property Management Systems (PMS), POS, and F&B solutions to high-value resorts, casinos, and luxury hotels. The company is successfully transitioning its customer base to its high-margin SaaS platform, evidenced by Subscription revenue growth of 26.8%. Agilysys is a high-quality compounder leveraging its specialization to dominate the digitization of the non-cyclical, high-end hospitality market.

Pitch Summary:
Construction Partners, Inc. (ROAD), a contractor for roads and other large infrastructure projects, posted significant earnings in the quarter. The company's results have benefited from increased spending by state and local governments on infrastructure in recent years. More broadly, the company's management has engaged in acquisitions that are accretive to earnings and that broaden the company's economies of scale while expanding the company's regional footprint beyond southeastern America.

BSD Analysis:
Construction Partners is a high-growth, infrastructure services consolidator whose stock is a conviction bet on the multi-year, non-cyclical road maintenance and highway construction supercycle. The core moat is its geographic dominance in the high-growth Southeastern U.S. and its vertical integration (owning its asphalt plants). The company is aggressively executing a disciplined M&A strategy to consolidate the fragmented market, driving superior revenue growth and operating leverage. The stock is a leveraged play on the massive, non-discretionary federal and state spending on road infrastructure (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act).

Pitch Summary:
Leading individual contributors included Limbach Holdings, Inc. (LMB), a building-systems company providing HVAC, mechanical, electrical and plumbing services. Under a new management team, Limbach has shifted its business mix away from servicing general contractors and toward the higher margin and more stable owner-direct channel, which now accounts for more than two-thirds of its revenue. After meeting with the new CEO, we assessed that the market had failed to fully appreciate the impact of this strategic shift, which has resulted in Limbach being a much higher-quality company.

BSD Analysis:
Limbach Holdings is a high-growth, specialized mechanical HVAC services pure-play whose stock is a conviction bet on the accelerating demand for energy-efficient commercial building maintenance. The core thesis is driven by the successful pivot of its revenue mix toward high-margin, recurring Owner-Direct work. This strategic shift focuses on long-term service contracts directly with building owners, ensuring stable, high-retention revenue. The company is converting this model into superior profitability, with Q3 2025 mathbfAdjusted} EBITDA mathbfrising} 83% to $16.5 million. Limbach is a high-quality compounder leveraging its specialized expertise to dominate the non-cyclical, high-margin MRO segment of commercial real estate.

Pitch Summary:
We initiated a new position in Quanta Services, Inc. (PWR) which is a leading provider of infrastructure solutions for utility, power, technology, manufacturing, and communications customers. With 81% of revenue generated by Electric Infrastructure solutions and the remaining 19% tied to the Underground Utility segment, PWR is one of the largest contractors serving the transmission and distribution sector of the North American electric utility industry. As investors retreated from some market segments earlier this year, PWR pulled back to levels where we saw an opportunity to establish a position in this proven market leader.

BSD Analysis:
Quanta Services is the unassailable, high-growth infrastructure titan whose stock is a conviction bet on the multi-trillion-dollar, non-cyclical electrification and grid modernization supercycle. The core thesis is driven by the convergence of utility, power generation, and technology industries. Quanta is aggressively expanding its Total Solutions platform to capture massive new demand from data centers, reshoring manufacturing, and new power generation. This strategy is translating to financial velocity: Q3 2025 revenue surged 17.6% to $7.63 billion. The company is positioned to achieve record backlog and double-digit EPS growth in 2026, making it the indispensable execution partner for the modern U.S. infrastructure buildout.

Pitch Summary:
Contributors: In the second quarter, the Fund continued to benefit from diversification across sectors. However, quarterly performance was concentrated in technology and technology related companies including NVIDIA Corp (NVDA), Meta Platforms, Inc. (META), Microsoft Corp (MSFT), and Broadcom, Inc. (AVGO). NVIDIA was the strategy’s top performer for the period as the company’s first quarter results demonstrated continued strong demand for their leading artificial intelligence chips. While the tech sector turnaround in the quarter was encouraging, we continue to remain underweight some of the sector’s leaders such as NVIDIA and Apple, which largely reflects our ongoing risk management discipline around position sizing and concentration.

BSD Analysis:
NVIDIA is no longer just a semiconductor company; it’s the control plane for the global AI build-out. Its GPUs, networking, and software stack have become the default infrastructure for training and running large-scale AI models. CUDA remains a powerful moat, locking developers into an ecosystem that compounds with every new application built. While custom silicon and competitors are emerging, they mostly address overflow demand rather than displacing NVIDIA at the core. The next leg of growth is inference, which broadens demand beyond hyperscalers into enterprises and edge deployments. Valuation is elevated, but that reflects NVIDIA’s position as a bottleneck supplier in an AI arms race. As long as compute intensity keeps rising, NVIDIA’s earnings power remains structurally advantaged.

Pitch Summary:
Accenture thrives on change, leveraging rapid technological advancements to drive consistent demand for its IT services. As the clear leader in the fragmented consulting market, Accenture’s strong brand, unmatched global scale, comprehensive service offerings, and deep client relationships position it to continually gain market share from smaller competitors. Financially, Accenture stands out with a compelling fundamental track record. Since launching a dividend in 2006, Accenture has had a history of consistently increasing it in the mid-teens.

BSD Analysis:
Accenture is the high-quality, indispensable global digital transformation giant whose stock is a conviction bet on the non-cyclical, multi−year corporate shift to Generative AI. The core thesis is driven by the company's unassailable position as the trusted advisor capable of guiding global enterprises through the complex implementation of Gen AI. The company is aggressively positioning to capture this market, with 85% of organizations increasing technology investments focused on Gen AI. Accenture is an "AI Refinery"—taming complexity and unlocking scale—and its deep expertise in building a secure digital core for AI deployment is its ultimate moat. The stock is a high-quality compounder whose massive scale allows it to accelerate its clients' value realization from AI.

Pitch Summary:
Healthcare services company McKesson benefitted from its core US pharmaceutical distribution businesses in speciality and high growth areas like GLP-1 medication. It also demonstrated strategic portfolio management through the acquisition of PRISM Vision Holdings, and the divestiture of its Canadian retail businesses (Rexall and Well.ca) while continuing to focus on efficiency and cost control.

BSD Analysis:
McKesson is an unassailable, low-margin pharmaceutical distribution giant whose stock is a conviction bet on the non-cyclical, predictable demand for healthcare. The core moat is its indispensable role as the largest pharmaceutical distributor in North America, securing a massive scale advantage and high barriers to entry. The company's specialty is its focus on higher-margin oncology solutions and its role in drug and medical supply management for specialty practices. While operating margins are thin, the sheer volume and stability of its distribution network ensure predictable, compounding cash flow. McKesson is a defensive core holding that benefits from the non-discretionary growth of the global pharmaceutical market.

Pitch Summary:
Broadcom’s strong returns in Q2 were driven by demand for AI networking and custom accelerators, combined with synergies integrating VMware’s infrastructure software. We continue to believe the company has a significant opportunity ahead of it with its custom semiconductor chip business as hyperscalers look for efficient computing solutions to lower the cost of their massive datacenter investments.

BSD Analysis:
Broadcom is a high-margin, indispensable core supplier of AI infrastructure and enterprise software, whose stock is undergoing a structural re-rating. The core thesis is built upon two mutually reinforcing pillars: its AI hardware engines—dominance in AI networking chips (Ethernet switches) and its leadership in custom ASIC AI compute. Its near-monopolistic dominance in Ethernet switching makes it the de facto standard for building large-scale AI backend networks. The strategic importance of its chips and its enterprise software division (accelerated by the VMware acquisition) secures a massive, high-margin revenue annuity. Broadcom is the "pick-and-shovel" seller in the AI gold rush.

Pitch Summary:
We sold Global-e due to cybersecurity and execution concerns that may derail the business’ ability to sustain the strong growth we expected. In recent months, three large customers have been hacked, resulting in significant operational challenges. While it’s possible that these attacks were strictly due to vulnerabilities with third party vendors, it would be a material risk to the business and stock if Global-e was implicated. This risk is exacerbated by the challenges higher tariffs may pose to its business, given its role in facilitating cross-border ecommerce. We still see a significant potential for the business, but these unforeseen challenges led us to exit the position in favor of higher conviction opportunities.

BSD Analysis:
Global-e is a high-growth, indispensable e-commerce pure-play whose stock is a conviction bet on the non-discretionary, multi-year expansion of cross-border direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales. The core moat is its technologically superior platform, which handles the massive complexity of international e-commerce (localization, payments, logistics, duties). The company is successfully converting this advantage into scale and profitability: Q3 2025 Adjusted EBITDA growth surged 33% and it achieved a 246% year-over-year increase in Free Cash Flow. This strong performance is driven by increased adoption of value-added services and its ongoing partnership with Shopify. Global-e is a high-quality compounder whose leadership position in a structurally growing market continues to widen its competitive moat.

Pitch Summary:
We exited Apple based on several factors that we view as threats to its ability to sustain above-average earnings growth. Technology Innovators initiated a position in Apple in June 2024 based on the view that the combination of Apple’s integrated hardware, voice-activated assistant, and consumer data positioned the business well to deliver artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled personalized assistant capabilities and to collect tolls on the expansion of AI-enabled applications that we expected to scale alongside computing power. Since then, we see limited evidence that Apple has effectively leveraged AI to accelerate device replacement cycles or reignite Services growth by enhancing developer-facing AI functionality. Apple’s execution challenges are paired with demand headwinds in China, margin pressures, and challenges around search monetization. The company’s outward position on privacy and security adds another layer of complexity as we move to a more agentic generative AI paradigm where software executes tasks on behalf of consumers. Altogether, it’s increasingly uncertain how Apple will embrace this next paradigm shift while maintaining its position on privacy, fighting internal bureaucracy, and likely needing another reorganization around its internal AI research and development efforts. Considering these factors, we chose to exit Apple in favor of higher-conviction, duration-growth businesses.

BSD Analysis:
Apple is the ultimate technology platform oligopolist, whose stock is a conviction bet on the durability of its ecosystem moat and the accelerating monetization of its high-margin Services segment. The company delivered September quarter records for total revenue ($102.5 billion), iPhone revenue, and EPS. Its Services revenue reached a new all-time high, continuing to act as the primary, high-margin growth engine. The company's integration of hardware, software, and services creates one of the stickiest business models in the world, with switching away incurring high practical and emotional costs. The massive, predictable cash flow and the aggressive pace of its share repurchase program provide a structural safety net against any near-term hardware volatility.

Pitch Summary:
Spotify is the world’s largest subscription streaming audio service by market share. Recorded music has seen significant distribution shifts—from vinyl to cassette to CDs—over the past 50 years. Today, streaming accounts for the bulk of industry revenue, and we view streaming as the natural end-state, given the consumer value proposition and balance of power between artists and labels. Within streaming, Spotify has outsized market share and user engagement. This has resulted in relatively inelastic demand and, in turn, pricing power. We ultimately view the addressable market as anyone with internet access globally. Unlike with video streaming, consumers tend to subscribe to only a single audio streaming service. Spotify’s leadership position has become further entrenched with music labels’ growing dependence on streaming revenue. Over our five-year horizon, we expect gross margin improvement from advertising and partnership agreements with labels, with operating margin improvement also driven by cost discipline.

BSD Analysis:
Spotify is the dominant, high-growth global audio platform whose stock is a conviction bet on the successful, multi-year shift from a simple music streaming service to a high-margin, two-sided audio marketplace. The core thesis is the accelerating monetization of its 590 million total monthly active users (MAU) and its relentless focus on expanding into high-margin podcasting, audiobooks, and advertising. The company is executing a massive profitability push, with Gross Margin projected to hit 32% by 2026. This is driven by strategic initiatives like Freemium improvements, the Content Platform, and Music Royalty Optimization. Spotify is a leveraged play on the structural growth of the digital audio market, where its scale provides an unassailable moat.

Pitch Summary:
Palo Alto Networks is a leading cybersecurity platform. It has leveraged its leading position in firewalls to build strong positions in key emerging segments such as Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), and cloud security. These newer segments collectively make up its Next-Generation Security revenue which is now over $5B in annual run-rate revenue with a significant growth runway. We expect cyber security will remain a top priority for customers and continued share gains will support sustainable above average revenue growth. Additionally, we expect AI will be a key factor driving cybersecurity decisions on multiple levels. The usage of AI can make adversaries more effective, can expand the attack surface, and require more advanced security. We believe Palo Alto is one of only a few companies with the necessary data and installed base to thrive in this environment.

BSD Analysis:
Palo Alto Networks has evolved from a next-gen firewall company into a full-stack cybersecurity platform with real strategic gravity. The core strength is consolidation: enterprises increasingly prefer fewer vendors, and Palo Alto is winning by bundling network, cloud, and endpoint security into a unified architecture. Platformization has pressured near-term billings optics, but it materially improves customer lock-in and lifetime value. The shift toward software and subscriptions continues to lift margins and smooth revenue cyclicality. As cloud complexity and AI-driven threats rise, security spend remains one of the last IT budgets to get cut. Competition is intense, but Palo Alto’s breadth and execution speed keep it positioned as a default choice for large enterprises. This is no longer a point-solution story—it’s an infrastructure-grade security compounder hiding inside a volatile tech sector.

Pitch Summary:
Visa operates the world’s largest retail electronic payment network. Shares declined in June amid a broader selloff in card network stocks following stablecoin-related headlines. Unlike the market, we do not view stablecoin proliferation as a threat to card volumes; in fact, we believe it could expand the addressable market for card networks. While stablecoins may have utility in cross-border business-to-business transactions, we think they are unlikely to disrupt consumer-to-merchant payments, where cards offer a compelling value proposition—rewards, liquidity, ubiquity, buyer protections, and trust. Moreover, card networks could enhance stablecoin adoption by providing the rules, protections, and services needed for broader, mainstream use.

BSD Analysis:
Visa is the unassailable, high-margin payment network oligopolist whose stock is a conviction bet on the long-term, secular growth of digital payments worldwide. The core moat is its two-sided network effect—connecting billions of consumers to millions of merchants and financial institutions. This creates a de facto financial utility that extracts a small but immense fee from nearly every digital transaction globally. Its financial model is structurally superior, generating an Adjusted Operating Margin well above 65% and requiring minimal capital expenditure relative to revenue. The company is poised to benefit from every major structural trend: the growth of e-commerce, the monetization of cross-border travel, and the expansion of digital payments in emerging markets. Visa is a core, defensive compounder whose growth is non-cyclical and highly predictable.

Pitch Summary:
Okta remains the leading independent provider of enterprise identity and access management software, based on revenue and breadth of integrations. Shares declined after first-quarter results showed current remaining performance obligations (cRPO) rose 14 percent year-over-year, slightly below investor expectations. Management also issued softer-than-expected cRPO guidance for 2026. While Okta has not yet reaccelerated top-line growth, we believe the business presents an attractive risk-reward profile. Our outlook rests on the view that better sales execution and a broader product suite will support Okta’s effort to capture more of the enterprise opportunity—its top strategic priority.

BSD Analysis:
Okta is a high-stakes, high-leverage identity management pure-play whose stock is an asymmetric recovery bet following a turbulent period. The core thesis is a conviction play on the non-discretionary corporate need for modern, agentic cybersecurity and unified identity management across a fragmented IT landscape. The company's separation of its sales force into specialized teams for the Okta and Auth0 platforms is designed to accelerate growth in both the workforce and customer identity segments. Despite decelerating revenue growth, the company's deep-value positioning (estimated 75.4% undervaluation based on DCF) and its dramatically expanding margins are attracting professional institutional money. The stock is a bet on management successfully converting its platform innovation into re-accelerated revenue growth.

Pitch Summary:
Atlassian is a leading provider of software applications designed to improve team collaboration and productivity. Shares declined after first-quarter results revealed a narrower-than-expected beat on cloud revenue guidance. While the market reacted to the narrow beat, we do not believe it signals any erosion in the company’s competitive position or broader macroeconomic challenges. Enterprise seat expansion, product upgrades, cross-sells, and migrations from data center to cloud all tracked within or above expectations. Importantly, we continue to see no signs of weakness in the data supporting our view that Atlassian’s momentum with enterprise customers and newer offerings like Jira Service Management remains underappreciated.

BSD Analysis:
Atlassian is an essential, high-growth enterprise software giant whose value is locked in its dominance as the "System of Work" platform for developers and knowledge workers. The core thesis is a structural pivot to Enterprise adoption and the successful monetization of its Cloud platform through AI and analytics. The company achieved a record number of deals greater than $1 million in ACV in Q4, up over 2x year-over-year. Its unassailable moat is the Teamwork Graph—the rich, proprietary data set on how teams collaborate—which fuels its powerful AI functionality. This is a high-quality compounder that is leveraging its core products (Jira, Confluence) to capture high-margin revenue from large, complex enterprises.

Pitch Summary:
Netflix is the world’s largest producer and distributor of video streaming content, measured by content spending and subscriber base. Shares rose following strong first-quarter 2025 results, which reflected solid subscriber growth and retention, continued margin expansion, and increased capital returns, including a $3.5 billion share repurchase—the largest in the company’s history. Advertising momentum continued, bolstered by reports of a $9 billion internal ad revenue target by 2030. In our view, these results underscore the compelling value of Netflix’s robust content portfolio, competitive pricing, and growing ad-supported tier. Video entertainment has historically remained resilient during economic downturns, and we expect Netflix’s scale and market leadership to support ongoing durability and long-term growth.

BSD Analysis:
Netflix is the dominant, high-margin streaming pure-play whose stock is poised for massive earnings leverage from its non-discretionary monetization efforts. The core thesis is driven by the successful, multi-year shift toward profitability through its ad-tier plan and its crackdown on password sharing. This operational cleanup is delivering massive free cash flow, with the FY2025 Free Cash Flow outlook raised to $9 billion. The company's operating margin hit 34.1% in one quarter, demonstrating immense earnings power as monetization accelerates. Management is also aggressively expanding its advertising revenue, which is projected to double in 2025. Netflix is a conviction bet on the continued dominance of streaming and the success of its monetization strategy

Pitch Summary:
NVIDIA is the market-leading provider of AI technology based on revenue. Its most recent results eased concerns about AI demand and the impact of export restrictions on China. Although the H20 ban created a $10.5 billion revenue headwind in the first half of 2025, demand remains strong. Excluding China, datacenter revenue grew 64 percent year-over-year and is expected to accelerate to 70 percent next quarter. Management also guided for gross margins to rise to the mid-70 percent range from 72 percent. Rack yield concerns were addressed, with major hyperscalers now deploying nearly 72,000 Blackwell GPUs per week. NVIDIA ended the quarter as the strategy’s largest position and remains a high-conviction business at Sands Capital.

BSD Analysis:
NVIDIA is the unassailable, high-margin kingmaker of the AI revolution, converting its technological dominance into a grotesque amount of cash flow. Its true moat is the CUDA software ecosystem, which locks in every hyperscaler and AI lab with high switching costs that are virtually unbreachable. The financial performance is ruthless: Q4 FY2025 revenue surged 78% year-over-year to $39.3 billion, driven by 93% growth in Data Center revenue. The entire investment thesis is fueled by the success of its next-generation Blackwell AI supercomputers, which the CEO describes as having "amazing" demand as reasoning AI adds another scaling law. NVIDIA's consistent, aggressive cadence of innovation is a formidable barrier to competitors, and its stock is a core holding that is paying a justified premium for its systemic, indispensable role in AI adoption worldwide.