Cristia Calle Mercado @CCalle: "𝘽𝙀𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙀𝙓𝙋𝙀𝘾𝙏𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉𝙎: Three of our holdings..."

Spain

𝘽𝙀𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙀𝙓𝙋𝙀𝘾𝙏𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉𝙎: Three of our holdings have released results recently (yesterday and today). All of them, beating expectations. Let's start with the elephant in the room: Alibaba ( $BABA (Alibaba-ADR) $9988.HK (Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (Hong Kong)) ) 𝘼𝙡𝙞𝙗𝙖𝙗𝙖 Alibaba has released its results today. The company's stock price fell recently because Meituan's ( $03690.HK (Meituan Class B) ) results were disappointing. The company lost almost all its profitability, and the market punished Meituan and Alibaba, thinking that Alibaba would not be so profitable this quarter. However, as I said in my previous post, the key with Alibaba was its growth in cloud, and they have delivered BIG TIME. 26% growth compared to last year, and its profitability is up 26%, too. E-commerce has lost some profitability, despite growing healthily. This is the impact of instant commerce. The difference with Meituan is that instant commerce is not such a big part of Alibaba's profitability. Hence, E-commerce is still a cash-generating machine for the company. 𝙐𝙡𝙩𝙖 𝘽𝙚𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙮: I remember buying $ULTA (Ulta Beauty Inc) when the market thought that the company was doomed. Quietly, the company has given the portfolio a return of over 50% already in about a year. Back in July/August 2024, comparable sales (the amount of sales of each store compared to its previous year) were being hurt. But this company has a great business, with quite a good MOAT. This quarter, comparable sales are up over 6%. BEAUTIFUL. But better still, net sales are up almost 10% because the company keeps opening new stores. GREAT. According to my valuation, the company still has room to grow, and the portfolio will take advantage of that. 𝙎𝙤𝙛𝙩𝙘𝙖𝙩: This is a software company. A sector I'm familiar with, since I'm a CFO of a software engineering company. And I love Softcat ( $SCT.L (Softcat PLC) ) . Its balance sheet is easy to read, and its business is plain and simple. Besides, the company is quite unknown, which helps a lot, because we can buy it at a good discount. The company trades in line with the US market multiple, that is, same price as the average US company. However, the company has released a trading update informing that they are going to grow revenue in the high-teens, and their operating profit in the mid-teens. Owning a great business always pays off. Regarding Alibaba and ULTA, both are up in the pre-market. Alibaba is up currently almost 4%, and ULTA is up almost 4%, too. Softcat rose about 5% after its trading update. These are the companies you can expect to see in my portfolio. Great companies, with good returns on invested capital, and with a great upside potential. Besides, I'll always focus on protecting the hard-earned money invested in the portfolio, making sure to never overpay for any business. The good part of owning these businesses? They always beat expectations. $SPX500 $NSDQ100 $BTC $UK100