Quick note — I do not think war in the Middle East is a good reason to grow sour on markets or sell stocks. From strictly a cold, robotic investor point of view… when ignoring every other part of these developments… this will not impact profit growth for the names I cover. As always, I will solely comment on geopolitical events from a financial market point of view and leave all other parts of it to other people. This newsletter is for stocks and markets. That’s it.

I boosted my Cava stake by 22% today. As I’ve been saying in the recent earnings reviews and other coverage, I love everything about this company besides the valuation. They are executing at an unmatched level within quick-service restaurants. And now, the EBITDA multiple has just fallen below 50x forward. Still expensive, but the valuation is 25 turns lower than it was a year ago and I don’t expect this name to be traditionally “cheap” for a very long time.

I hope to continue building out this stake over time if it keeps performing at a high level and keeps seeing its multiple contract. At just 1.2% of current holdings, that is what I am hoping for. I think this is going to earn a very long holding period from me. I will continue to constantly verify that and remain as patient as I need to be in building out this small position.

The two charts below are the same. I include the secondary source screenshot because the primary source image from Schwab is very hard to read.