Jim and Abigail Zimmerman of Lowell Capital Management presented their in-depth investment thesis on Build-A-Bear Workshop (NYSE: BBW) at Wide-Moat Investing Summit 2025.

Thesis summary:

Build-A-Bear Workshop is a multi-channel retailer of plush animals and related products operating across the United States, Canada, the U.K., Ireland, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Direct-to-Consumer, Commercial, and International Franchising, with sales through branded stores, e-commerce, and third-party platforms.

BBW has strategically transitioned from a traditional mall-based retailer to a more diversified, capital-light, brand-centric business model focused on direct-to-consumer, digital content, licensing, and media. BBW targets high-growth areas like gifting, entertainment, and lifestyle through partnerships, while exiting underperforming stores and reallocating capital to franchising, collab stores, and branded content.

BBW has several characteristics Jim and Abby like, including (1) a highly resilient business model with deep customer loyalty and a unique experiential retail format that is difficult to replicate, (2) a highly cash-generative business with low capital expenditure needs, (3) a high-ROIC business model supported by asset-light operating structure and disciplined capital allocation, (4) a strong focus on higher value-added experiences and branded offerings with longer-term and “stickier” customer relationships, (5) an attractive valuation trading at about ~7x adjusted EBITDA and a high single-digit free cash flow yield, (6) a high conversion of adjusted EBITDA into cash from operations (7) an end-market that is growing sustainably over the long term, (8) a record of strong organic growth over several years, (9) a disciplined management team focused on driving organic growth through capital-light partnerships, omni-channel initiatives, and digital expansion, and (10) a long-term strategy to grow sales and EBITDA.

Jim and Abby believe BBW can achieve adjusted EBITDA of $100+ million by 2028, and the highly cash-generative business model can trade for 10x adjusted EBITDA with zero net debt for a market cap of about $1 billion. This could drive share repurchases, reducing shares to around 11 million by 2028, with a share price of $90 or higher versus the recent price of about $50 per share. Further, BBW’s strategic brand partnerships, capital-light operating model, and recurring revenue streams could make it an attractive target for a strategic acquirer or financial sponsor.

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About the instructor:

Jim Zimmerman is founder and portfolio manager of Lowell Capital Value Partners, LP, successor fund to Lowell Capital Fund, L.P. Jim managed Lowell Capital Fund L.P. from 2003 to 2015 employing a proprietary strategy laser-focused on smaller and/or misunderstood companies with large, sustainable free cash flow yields and “Ft. Knox” balance sheets. He generated a compound annual return significantly exceeding the HFRI Equity Hedge Index and the S&P 500 Total Return Index over this period, despite holding a significant net cash position (~30%) for most of this period and Lowell Capital Value Partners has achieved similar results with the same strategy since its founding in 2017. Jim has over 25 years of investment banking and investment management experience in a variety of industries and has been involved with several billion dollars of investments. Jim graduated with a BA with high honors in economics from Princeton University in 1980 and an MBA from Stanford Business School in 1984. He worked at Drexel Burnham Lambert, Inc., 1984 to 1990, serving in the Corporate Finance Department and multiple other investment banks from 1990 to 2003.

Abigail Zimmerman works alongside her father at Lowell Capital. Abigail earned her B.A. in Business Administration at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and has worked with Jim for the last several years. She assists in the generation of new ideas, marketing to current and new investors, research of small and medium cap companies, and detailed due diligence on current and potential investments.

Aman Budhwar of PenderFund Capital Management presented his investment thesis on Addus HomeCare (Nasdaq: ADUS) at Wide-Moat Investing Summit 2025.

Thesis summary:

Addus HomeCare is a well-positioned provider of home-based care services, serving approximately 45,600 patients across 23 U.S. states. Founded in 1979 and managed by the current team since 2016, Addus specializes in personal care, hospice, and home health segments. The company benefits from favorable long-term trends, including an aging U.S. population, increasing preference for cost-effective home-based care solutions, and a healthcare landscape shifting towards managed care, which favors larger, experienced providers. With 84% of its revenues from government programs, Addus enjoys a non-discretionary, stable demand profile.

The company’s personal care segment, constituting roughly three-quarters of total revenue and profit, has consistently delivered high-single-digit organic growth, supported by favorable pricing dynamics and margin improvements. Recent acquisitions, including the notable $350 million purchase of Gentiva’s personal care business at 6.5x EV/EBITDA multiple, have further solidified Addus’s market-leading position. While hospice operations experienced temporary disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic, a recovery is underway, supported by leadership enhancements and increasing integration with the home health segment.

Despite regulatory concerns around Medicaid reimbursements and healthcare policy, Addus faces limited exposure to major risks, as management expects regulatory changes to be either neutral or beneficial. Its geographically diversified footprint further mitigates potential state-level funding risks. Operational efficiency, disciplined capital allocation, and accretive acquisitions underpin its sustainable growth strategy.

From a valuation perspective, Addus recently traded at approximately $115 per share, implying substantial upside to an estimated intrinsic value of $147 per share, based on a discounted cash flow analysis incorporating conservative mid-single-digit growth assumptions and margin expansion driven by operating leverage. With additional potential from prudent acquisitions and its strong defensive earnings profile, Addus represents an appealing investment opportunity with a clear growth runway and manageable risk profile.

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About the instructor:

Aman Budhwar is a Portfolio Manager at PenderFund Capital Management, a firm he joined in February 2022. Aman is passionate about capital markets and has over 25 years of experience in the field of global and emerging market equity research, analysis and stock-picking. Prior to joining Pender, Aman held Senior Equity Analyst positions at leading Canadian fund and asset management firms. Prior to that, he began his career as an Investment Correspondent for India’s leading business daily, where he wrote full-page cover pieces that helped establish a loyal readership. He also worked with a domestic stockbroker in Mumbai before immigrating to Canada in 2001. Throughout his career, Aman has pursued investment opportunities with a long term, differentiated view. He takes a methodical approach to investing and likes to assess both the potential bull and bear cases as well as the probability of each before committing capital to an investment. Over the years, he has developed a process to help identify long term compounders by focusing on key attributes such as a sustainable competitive advantage, high returns on capital, and an attractive free cash flow yield. Aman holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Garhwal University in India and an MBA from the Institute of Management Technology in India. He earned his Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation in 2004. In his free time, he enjoys an active lifestyle, traveling and spending time with his family.

Switzerland-based investor Jens Kruse presented his investment thesis on Duolingo (Nasdaq: DUOL) at Wide-Moat Investing Summit 2025.

Thesis summary:

Duolingo is an innovative, mission-driven educational technology company that has transformed language learning through its engaging, gamified app. With the ambitious goal of providing the best education universally accessible, Duolingo has become the most downloaded educational app worldwide, boasting approximately 130 million monthly active users and 10 million subscribers as of early 2025. Co-founded by Luis von Ahn, renowned for inventing Captcha and ReCaptcha, Duolingo leverages its significant user base and high brand recognition to maintain robust growth and competitive positioning.

Financially, Duolingo has shown remarkable growth momentum, with revenues projected to reach approximately \$975 million in 2025, reflecting an annual growth rate of about 31%. The company’s scalable freemium model, with subscriptions driving approximately 76% of revenues, underpins this strong revenue expansion. Duolingo’s high gross margins, consistently around 75%, illustrate its profitability potential, which is complemented by improving operating leverage as it advances toward a long-term EBITDA margin target of 35%.

The company’s growth potential extends well beyond language learning. Plans to expand into broader educational segments, including music, mathematics, computer science, and financial literacy, suggest significant untapped opportunities to monetize its massive and growing user base. This strategic product diversification, along with Duolingo’s robust engagement metrics—28% daily active users as a percentage of monthly users—positions the company strongly to achieve sustained long-term growth.

Despite its strengths, Duolingo faces challenges such as intense competition, potential slowing subscriber growth, regulatory risks around internet usage, and significant investments in AI that could temporarily weigh on profitability. Nonetheless, the company’s visionary leadership, powerful brand, scalable platform, and broad market potential justify its compelling long-term investment thesis, with considerable upside potential suggested by recent valuations targeting significantly higher than the stock’s recently traded range.

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About the instructor:

Jens Kruse is Chief Representative based in Zurich, Switzerland. In addition to build relationships for Jifu Investments he is responsible to manage an inhouse global equity portfolio. Prior to joining Jifu Investment Group, he was the Director and Country Head Switzerland within Franklin Templeton for over 10 years. In that capacity, he oversaw the increase of Swiss client assets from USD 4B to 24B at the peak, joining the top ten Swiss investment managers. His team conducted sophisticated, technology driven campaigns, covering all sales channels, including pension funds, private banks, insurance companies, family offices and independent asset managers. Jens was instrumental in executing state-of-the-art sales processes with the team in a pilot project, subsequently followed by all international offices. Jens has 30 years of investment experience, selling financial products to European institutional investors. He lived and worked in the UK, Italy, France, Germany and Switzerland and acquired the local languages. He holds a master’s in political sciences with a focus on macroeconomics from the University of Berne, Switzerland.

Stefan Ćulibrk of Highway One Asset Management presented his investment thesis on Ryanair (Ireland: RYA, US: RYAAY) at Wide-Moat Investing Summit 2025.

Thesis summary:

Ryanair stands out as a best-in-class, low-cost airline that has managed exceptional growth and capital efficiency in an industry known for intense capital expenditures and high leverage. Unlike its peers — such as IAG, Lufthansa, and Air France-KLM, which have significantly increased share counts and accumulated substantial debt to finance fleet expansions — Ryanair has uniquely reduced its share count and maintained a net cash position, recently boasting a negative net debt/EBITDA ratio of -0.4x, indicative of its robust balance sheet strength.

Ryanair’s disciplined, low-cost model benefits from a combination of factors, including complete aircraft ownership, efficient operational management, and a relentless focus on cost control driven by its fanatically committed owner-operator culture. This operational model has enabled Ryanair to achieve consistently superior ROCE, outperforming competitors. Furthermore, Ryanair’s ability to sustainably charge higher average fares while maintaining low costs positions the company advantageously amid rising European emissions trading scheme (ETS) costs, which disproportionately affect rivals.

The competitive landscape further amplifies Ryanair’s strategic advantage. With Boeing and Airbus fully booked for the next decade, competitors are constrained from swiftly expanding their fleets. At the same time, competitors like Wizz Air are incrementally shifting away from Europe, reducing direct competitive pressures within Ryanair’s core market. Ryanair is expected to capitalize on this environment, significantly increasing net profit per passenger beyond previous peaks, supported by stable and growing market share in the European airline market.

Despite industry nuisances and macroeconomic risks — including oil price volatility, economic cycles, and environmental regulations — Ryanair’s resilient operating model, strong financial position, and pricing power make it an attractive investment, particularly in a sector otherwise characterized by significant capital intensity and cyclical challenges.

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About the instructor:

Stefan Ćulibrk invests on behalf of Highway One Fund in a select group of publicly-listed businesses that either are or have the potential to become world-class. Before starting Highway One, Stefan managed his family’s investments and worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s London office.

Andrew Macken of Montaka Global Investments presented his investment thesis on Floor & Decor Holdings (NYSE: FND) at Wide-Moat Investing Summit 2025.

Thesis summary:

Floor & Decor is a specialized US retailer of hard surface flooring products, offering approximately 4,400 SKUs per store across 254 large-format locations. The company was founded in 2000 and operates a differentiated business model characterized by extensive in-stock inventory, low prices, and high service levels. Led by CEO Tom Taylor, a seasoned executive formerly of Home Depot, Floor & Decor leverages a highly efficient retail model that emphasizes cost efficiency, simplicity, high inventory turnover, and significant scale advantages.

The US housing market is currently in a cyclical trough, marked by historically low home sales and significant pent-up demand, suggesting robust future growth in home improvement expenditure. Given the median age of US homes is now around 44 years, demand for renovation and maintenance remains structurally high. This scenario positions Floor & Decor favorably within the substantial \$40 billion annual US hard surface flooring market, which itself is gaining structural share from carpet flooring.

Floor & Decor employs a potent economic flywheel that strengthens its market position and economic moats over time. The company’s specialization in flooring enables scale economies, leading to advantageous procurement costs and efficient operations. These benefits translate into lower prices and improved customer experience, which in turn drive market share gains and reinforce the competitive advantage. This cycle has significantly grown Floor & Decor’s market share over recent years and is expected to sustain continued market leadership and profitable expansion.

Despite the company’s recent robust expansion, Floor & Decor’s current earnings appear depressed relative to their normalized potential, largely due to a younger store base and cyclically low US housing market activity. As the housing market rebounds and newer stores mature into profitability, a meaningful margin expansion is anticipated. The company recently traded at an enterprise value of approximately $10 billion, presenting a compelling opportunity given the substantial earnings growth trajectory implied by management’s store rollout plan and the industry’s long-term tailwinds. Floor & Decor represents a high-quality, advantaged business poised for sustained earnings growth and market leadership in the years ahead.

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About the instructor:

Andrew Macken is the Co-Founder and CIO of Montaka Global Investments, a global equity manager based in Sydney and New York. Prior to establishing Montaka, Andrew worked as a senior member of Jim Chanos’ research team at Kynikos Associates, a global equity long/short fund based in New York. Andrew holds a Master of Business Administration (Dean’s List) from the Columbia Business School in New York. Andrew also graduated with High Distinction with a Master of Commerce; and First Class Honours with a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of New South Wales in Sydney.

Rodrigo Lopez Buenrostro of KUE Capital presented his investment thesis on ASML (Netherlands: ASML, NYSE: ASML) at Wide-Moat Investing Summit 2025.

Thesis summary:

ASML, the dominant supplier in the semiconductor lithography equipment industry, recently traded at €680 per share, reflecting a market capitalization of approximately €270 billion and an enterprise value of €260 billion. ASML has a monopoly on EUV (Extreme Ultraviolet) lithography machines, a critical technology required for manufacturing advanced semiconductor chips. The company’s market position is reinforced by high entry barriers and proprietary technologies, effectively insulating it from competitive threats.

The core investment thesis revolves around the structural growth of global semiconductor demand, propelled by advancements in computing, data centers, AI technologies, and an expanding global internet infrastructure. ASML’s lithography machines are central to enabling ongoing progress in chip miniaturization, directly underpinning Moore’s Law. The company’s unique technological leadership, particularly in EUV and DUV machines, positions it strategically to capture disproportionate economic benefits as the industry continues its upward trajectory.

ASML’s strong competitive moat is amplified through its installed base management, leveraging a high-margin service and upgrade business driven by continuous innovation and customer lock-in. Additionally, ASML strategically reinvests about 100% of its net income into its business, maintaining a robust R\&D pipeline aimed at further technological advances, such as the development of Hyper-NA machines, which solidify its competitive edge and growth trajectory.

Despite its robust competitive positioning and substantial reinvestment in growth initiatives, ASML faces risks including the potential slowing of Moore’s Law, the concentrated customer base for high-NA technology, possible technological disruptions, and geopolitical tensions affecting supply chains and trade dynamics. However, the company’s prudent risk management and strategic patience in the face of uncertainties provide a strong buffer. With high returns on new investments (approximately 20% RONE) and a compelling valuation, ASML represents a high-quality investment, though investors may prefer to wait for a more favorable entry price closer to €600 per share.

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About the instructor:

Rodrigo Lopez Buenrostro is a Partner at Kue Capital where he invests to preserve capital over time. He currently leads the asset management division within the firm and divides his time between equity research and manager selection with a global mandate. Previously, Rodrigo worked as a summer equity analyst at SW Investments, a value-focused hedge fund in Chicago. He began his professional career as an Investment Banker at BBVA. Rodrigo is an MBA graduate from Chicago Booth Class of 2015 where he earned a concentration in Analytic Finance and was actively involved in the Investment Management community. He studied Business and Accounting at ITAM for undergraduate where he wrote his graduating thesis on hedge funds and started to invest personally. Rodrigo has always had an interest in finding the real value of assets, reading, and volunteering to teach basic concepts related to investing.