Institutional ticker directory tracking stock mentions, long/short ideas, and high-conviction pitches extracted from quarterly hedge fund letters.
| Ticker | Company | Sector | Industry | Pitches | Stance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fund / Manager | Thesis Excerpt | Stance | Period / Date | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Immersion Investment Partners David Polansky | “Mama's Creations (MAMA – Doubted Champion) We have written about our investment in Mama's Creations almost ad nauseam. For a refresher, you can read about it here, here, and” | NEUTRAL | Q2 2026 Aug 10, 2026 | View Pitch |
Immersion Investment Partners David Polansky | “Mama's Creations (MAMA – Doubted Champion) We have written about our investment in Mama's Creations almost ad nauseam. For a refresher, you can read abou...” | BULL | Q2 2026 Aug 10, 2026 | View Pitch |
Long Cast Advisers Avram Fisher | “Since installing a new CEO in 2023, Mama's Creations has grown its tangible book value per share from $0.06 to $0.97 due to exceptional operational execution. Despite trading at a high trailing multiple, the business remains highly attractive and fits the fund's five-year double criteria if it makes progress toward its $1B revenue target.” | BULL | Q1 2026 Mar 31, 2026 | View Pitch |
Immersion Investment Partners David Polansky | “Mama's Creations reported exceptional operating results for its third fiscal quarter ending October 31, delivering nearly flawless execution while integrating a large acquisition. Net sales grew 50% year over year to $47.3 million, materially ahead of expectations, driven by 18% organic growth and contributions from the Crown acquisition. Gross margin expanded to 23.6% versus consensus of 21.9%, while EBITDA margin reached 8% versus 6.1% expected. The company generated $3.8 million in adjusted EBITDA and $3.7 million in free cash flow during the quarter. Most notably, Mama's won national distribution at both Target and Food Lion, with management expecting these two customers alone to contribute $25–30 million in annual sales once fully deployed. BSD Analysis: Mama's moat is velocity and brand resonance in fresh prepared foods where shelf space is earned weekly. Retail relationships matter more than advertising—sell-through is the gatekeeper. Growth can be rapid, but margins are fragile when input costs swing. Scale improves procurement and logistics, yet execution mistakes show up immediately in spoilage and markdowns. Competition is relentless because barriers to entry are low. Pricing power exists briefly with strong velocity, then normalizes. The bull case is sustained distribution wins with disciplined cost control. The bear case is margin compression as growth outpaces operations. Mama's wins by staying fresh—literally and operationally.” | BULL | Q4 2025 Dec 31, 2025 | View Pitch |
Conestoga Micro Cap Composite Derek Johnston | “Mama's Creations, Inc. (MAMA) surged 28% in the quarter, driven by strong revenue growth and execution on its strategy to capture market share through new product placements at major retailers like Costco and Target. Shares surged in December after the company announced a 50% year-over-year increase in quarterly revenue, fueled by both organic gains and the successful integration of the Crown 1 acquisition. Adjusted EBITDA more than doubled as the company leveraged its expanded manufacturing footprint. We view this execution as validation of their strategy. BSD Analysis: Mama's Creations is a refrigerated prepared-food brand benefiting from consumers trading time for convenience. The products sit at the intersection of indulgence and practicality, which drives repeat purchases. Distribution gains matter more than brand buzz. Margins improve with scale as manufacturing efficiency kicks in. Investors dismiss it as a fad food name. Yet fresh prepared food continues to outgrow center-aisle categories. Execution and shelf placement are the swing factors. If velocity holds, earnings compound quickly. This is small-brand optionality with real consumer pull.” | BULL | Q4 2025 Dec 31, 2025 | View Pitch |
GROW Funds Mike Collins, Matt Clarke, Chase McIntosh, Carl Wiese | “Strong performer throughout 2025. Positive operational improvements and margin growth under new CEO Adam Michaels. Achieved major product placements in Walmart, Target, and Costco, which could represe” | BULL | Q4 2025 Dec 31, 2025 | View Pitch |
GROW Funds Mike Collins, Matt Clarke, Chase McIntosh, Carl Wiese | “Mama's Creations (MAMA) was a strong performer for the portfolio throughout 2025. MAMA markets, manufactures, and distributes ready-to-eat deli style packaged food products. Their products include beef meatballs, turkey meatballs, beef meat loaf, sausage and peppers, chicken parmesan, and other similar meats and sauces. Shoppers are increasingly looking for ready-to-eat food options at grocery and convenience stores with a focus on cleaner, protein items with simple ingredients. We originally purchased Mama shares at $2.50 and $3.50 and added more at $7.00 and $11.00 per share. The company has a new CEO, Adam Michaels, who has previously worked at Mondelez International. Since Adam joined the company in September of 2022, management has improved multiple operational processes within the business, driving margins and growth. Mama's has over 45,000 product placements and recently won national placements at Walmart, Target, and Costco, each of which could become $100 million customers over time. Management believes the company can achieve $1 billion in revenue by 2030, up from approximately $170 million expected in 2025. BSD Analysis: Mama's Creations is a fast-growing refrigerated foods brand benefiting from demand for fresh, premium convenience meals. Its products resonate with health-conscious consumers seeking alternatives to frozen or shelf-stable options. Distribution expansion is the main growth driver. Margins are improving as scale builds and procurement normalizes. Execution risk lies in managing growth without sacrificing quality. The brand has early momentum but remains small. This is a niche consumer-growth story with real upside if scale economics materialize.” | BULL | Q4 2025 Dec 31, 2025 | View Pitch |
Immersion Investment Partners David Polansky | “Mama's Creations (MAMA – Doubted Champion) announced the acquisition of Crown I Enterprises, a prepared foods division of Sysco, adding $56 million in annual sales and a recently upgraded 42,000-square-foot facility near its existing operations in Farmingdale, NY. The $17.5 million deal—roughly 2x estimated gross profit—was highly accretive, with potential to double profitability within a year through consolidated protein purchasing and operational synergies. The transaction validates MAMA's acquisition strategy: target complementary deli businesses with geographic fit, low integration risk, and attractive pricing. Management expects consolidated adjusted EBITDA of $30 million versus FY2027 Street estimates of $21 million, implying continued upside. Despite recent share appreciation, valuation remains low relative to growth potential. BSD Analysis: MAMA represents a textbook roll-up in specialty foods, combining disciplined M&A with organic expansion. The Sysco acquisition provides scale, procurement leverage, and higher utilization of existing sales infrastructure. Strong cash generation and a pristine balance sheet enable continued bolt-ons, while consensus estimates lag underlying earnings power. At a low-teens EBITDA multiple, shares remain attractive given expected 20%+ sales growth, expanding margins, and recurring retailer relationships. This is a compounder in the making within the fragmented refrigerated foods sector.” | BULL | Q3 2025 Sep 30, 2025 | View Pitch |
Immersion Investment Partners David Polansky | “Mama's Creations (MAMA – Doubted Champion) Occasionally you run across an executive who is so outlandishly passionate about their job and the brand they represent, you can't help but take notice. We first met Adam Michaels (CEO of MAMA) more than a year ago at an investor conference. Clad in mulberry shoes and sport coat, the exact brand colors of MAMA, he told us how he would take what was historically a subscale meatball manufacturer in suburban New Jersey and make it into one of the largest prepared foods and deli brands in the world. Frankly, we thought he had too many screws loose. Nonetheless, we were intrigued by the business and the category. Fresh and prepared foods in grocery stores has been a growing category, catalyzed by consumer demand for healthier, fast, and affordable food options. Grocery stores have been increasingly dedicating more food space to the category. Today, it is one of only a couple of categories that are seeing volume growth. Mama's Creations is an easy business to understand. It sells pre-prepared foods to most major grocery and club chains (Walmart, Whole Foods, Publix, Costco, etc.), and has a growing presence in convenience stores. Its product portfolio consists of a wide array of proteins (meatballs, chicken, etc.), salads, pasta, olives, and sandwiches. The products are manufactured in two facilities in East Rutherford, NJ, and Farmingdale, NY. Today, Mama's Creations seems like a run-of-the-mill subscale food manufacturer – $133 million in trailing twelve-month revenue, $32 million gross profit, and $11 million adjusted EBITDA. However, we believe they have several distinct advantages that make the stock a compelling investment. The first, as we discussed, is people. Michaels is fond of saying to us that if he were hit by a bus, the company would continue to execute without his intervention. To be certain, this is a suboptimal outcome, however, we do tend to agree that this is a team built to lead a billion-dollar business. Every member of management has significant credibility with customers and industry suppliers. Chris Darling is much more likely to be successful selling you a premade meatball or sausage than a random person who bought a beef processing machine and packaging line, especially when food safety and consistency matter. An investment in Mama's Creations can most accurately be described as a “Jockey bet”. The business is rather simple: buy a handful of ingredients, make a product, sell the product, and ship the product. The secret to success lies in day-to-day execution and category tailwinds, both of which we have here. Over the next several years, we believe that revenue and gross profit can almost triple in size due to a combination of organic and inorganic growth, with minimal dilution to shareholders. Specifically, we are underwriting to $225 million in organic sales and $100 million of acquired sales. The gross margin should be substantially higher than it is today, due to the aforementioned gross profit benefit from higher branded product mix and the implied efficiency lift of selling more products into the same customers. We estimate 32% in fiscal 2027 vs. mid-20s today. To support that growth, the business will likely grow its general and administrative expenses to $50 million vs. $30 million today. This gets us to $50 of adjusted EBITDA, which gives us significant upside vs. an enterprise value of $350 million today. Growing food companies can achieve very large multiples in the public markets, anywhere from 15-to-30x EBITDA. Assigning just a 12x multiple to MAMA gets us to nearly a $20 stock price compared to $9.50 at the time of this writing. The risk to our investment is the usual macro changes that affect customers' taste or pocketbook. On the company specific side, should Michaels or any senior member of management exit the company, this would raise the alarm bell for us and introduce risk in the timing of the investment. Because the category is strong, and the company has a decent-sized book of business with significant manufacturing capacity, MAMA is very valuable to a strategic or financial buyer which could cause them to sell before their growth plans are fully executed. BSD Analysis: Mama's Creations is a high-growth, undervalued specialty food manufacturer executing a rapid national expansion of its premium, refrigerated deli meal portfolio. The core thesis is driven by the massive, secular consumer shift toward convenient, high-quality, and healthier prepared meals. The company is demonstrating exceptional execution, consistently achieving double-digit sales growth and expanding its distribution footprint into major national retailers. This disciplined growth is leading to significant margin expansion and improving profitability. The stock is trading at a discount to its growth potential, penalized by its smaller scale; however, its focus on vertical integration and proprietary, authentic recipes provides a strong competitive moat against national CPG giants. This is a high-conviction bet on a market share winner in the rapidly evolving refrigerated food space.” | BULL | Q2 2025 Jul 1, 2025 | View Pitch |
Each excerpt above is the manager's commentary on this ticker specifically. The full letter has the rest of their portfolio thinking, risk discussion, and broader institutional context.
