Speedwell Research's News Update and Weekly Recap
Evolution Dialogue, Exclusive CSU Head of M&A Interview, The Trust Differentiator, Copart's Integration Advantage
Welcome to Speedwell Research’s Newsletter. We write about business and investing. Our paid research product can be found at SpeedwellResearch.com. You can learn more about us here.
This is a weekly recap, where we summarize recent content you may have missed.
Table of Contents:
Speedwell Releases & Upcoming
Spotlight
Coverage Updates
Sharing Links
1. Speedwell Releases & Upcoming.
Research.
In case you missed it, we released a business update on Evolution. You can read it here: EVO 2Q25 Business Update
The Synopsis Podcast.
This week, we released a dialogue episode discussing Evolution’s 2Q25 earnings. We also give an overview of regulated vs unregulated markets and different complexities of regulation and solving the Asia cyber attacks. Listen or read below!
Upcoming.
Podcast
Our next podcast will be a dialogue on one of our business memos.
Research
LVMH is currently in the works.
Coverage
Meta, Floor & Decor, APi Group, and Perimeter all report earnings next week. For our latest updates on these names, click here → Business Updates
Become a Speedwell Member today to get access to all of our research updates and our in-depth research reports!
Announcement: Expert Insight Interview (No Paywall)
The key question every investor in Constellation Software wants to know is simple. How are you going to deploy ever larger amounts of capital at high rates of return?
Well we got the opportunity to ask a Head of M&A at CSU just that!
Register now for free if you want to better understand Constellation Software’s M&A strategy— the key driver of their returns.
Register Here
The Webinar will be up on Thursday, July 31st at 12pm EST.
2. Spotlight.
Below are select quotes from our various writings and podcast.
EVO 2Q25 Business Recap.
Verifying Revenues: “As CEO Martin Carlesund explains below, they essentially are now double-checking that their games are being played with licensed operators in the proper market. This means they are forgoing revenue from operators who somehow acquired their games (likely from aggregators) and opted to operate illegally.”
Read the full update here: EVO 2Q25 Business Recap
Dialogue. Evolution 2Q25 Business Update, Black Markets, UK Investigation, Asia Cyber Attacks
The Evolution-Hasbro Relationship Compared to Apple-Google: “I think about the Apple and Google relationship, as Google is the default browser. Which is kind of... what is Apple’s incentive to switch or to go to Microsoft Bing? I mean, Google is the better search engine. They're going to have better results. They're going to have better monetization. It's a better customer experience. So I think similarly, you can kind of look at that relationship as the Evolution–Hasbro relationship, if it's working, why switch it up?
Memo: How Axon’s Founder Built a $35bn Business.
The Trust Differentiator: “When Axon released the Body Cams, there were many competitors that quickly popped up. While Axon had a superior solution, they also had something that many competitors lacked: trust. After defending so many law enforcement agencies, they built trust that if something went wrong with their product or service, they would make it right.”
Read the full memo here: Meta-Optimizations: Knowing When a Business is Operating from Strength or Weakness
Company Report Snippet: Copart.
How Copart Turned Integration Into an Advantage: “A big difference between Copart and IAA was what they did after acquiring a property. IAA would more or less leave it alone, thinking it was more urgent to acquire the next property than integrate the one they had just purchased. In contrast, Copart would train staff members in the Copart way and change operations so each yard would run the same. At one point, they even slowed growth to focus on unifying all of their properties into a single ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system. It took two years and $3mn, but by 1997, they started rolling out their new computer system yard by yard. This made it much easier to manage the increasingly national operation, and keep track of and identify any particular yards that had abnormal inefficiencies.”
*This is an excerpt from our company report on Copart.
If you are a Speedwell Research Member, read the full report here: Copart
If you are not already a Speedwell Research member, you can purchase it here: Copart Individual Report
3. Coverage Updates & News.
RH
Announced the opening of RH Montreal (The Gallery of Royalmount)
This opening further pushes RH into Canada, as they now have 5 RH galleries in Canada
For the second half of the year, RH has scheduled openings in RH Paris, RH Detroit, RH Manhasset, RH San Diego, and RH Palm Desert.
CoStar Group
CoStar reported 2Q25, and their stock went up +9% over the next couple days.
Revenue growth accelerated to +15% y/y, from 12% last quarter. This marks the 57th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth.
We will release a business recap on CoStar next week, so stay tuned!
Copart
Former CEO of IAA shares more context on the rising trend of uninsured vehicles: (AlphaSense Expert Insight)
“The same thing happened in the financial crisis of 2008. When there's an economic downturn, people look to where they can save money. Whether they forego insurance or they just go liability only, meaning that they're not going to buy collision coverage, those are areas where consumers have made those choices. Auto insurance rates have really gone up a lot in the U.S. in the last couple years. That's another factor that's leading people to consider either dropping it where they can or at least reducing it or increasing the deductible such that even if a vehicle is a total, the insurance company may not take control of it. I don't view that as a significant headwind to them. I think it will create some noise in the data. Many of those vehicles, even if they don't get totaled by the insurance company, the end consumer is then going to end up selling it to their body shop who's going to put it through our Copart anyway. I don't view that as a significant long-term threat to the industry.”
You can get a free trial to AlphaSense here: AlphaSense
Economic and Financial News
Retail Investors Driving Price Action
Retail-driven speculative trading is resurging with “meme stocks”. This time there is a new cadre of names including Kohl's, Krispy Kreme, GoPro, Beyond Meat, American Eagle, and Opendoor. Epitomizing the euphoria is Opendoor, which surged +370% in just the past month.
Next Week Financial Market Developments
Markets will receive a fresh set of business data: 162 S&P 500 companies will report earnings including mega-cap tech.
Other notables are a Fed policy decision announcement on Wednesday, July nonfarm payrolls on Friday. While the Fed is expected to hold rates steady, we could get incremental data into how they are veiwing inflation in light of the tariffs.
With the tariff deadline on August 1st fast approaching, there is still a lot of trade negotiations that need to be finanlized to avoid the worst of the tariffs. Of course, there is always the possibility the deadline is extended again.
U.S. President Trump is expected to meet with EU Commission head Ursula von der Leyen in Scotland to talk about EU trade policy. Previously, Trump had stated that he would impose a 30% tariff on the EU starting August 1st.
4. Sharing Links.
Check out Speedwell Research’s Drew Cohen’s YouTube Channel. It is focused on general investing and business content.
Other Links.
A Letter a Day: Todd Combs- Meeting Munger, Buffett, Joining Berkshire (link)
Michael Mauboussin: Trading Stages in the Company Life Cycle (link)
Turtle Creek: The Endowment Approach-Thinking Very Long Term (link)
And a special thank you to Matthew Harbaugh for helping put this weekly recap together!
The Synopsis Podcast.
Follow our Podcast below. We have four episode formats: “company” episodes that breakdown in-depth each business we write a report on, “dialogue” episodes that cover various business and investing topics, “article” episodes where we read our weekly memos, and “interviews”.
Speedwell Research Reports.
Become a Speedwell Research Member to receive all of our in-depth research reports, shorter exploratory reports, updates, and Members Plus also receive Excels.
(Many members have gotten their memberships expensed. If you need us to talk with your compliance department to become an approved vendor, please reach out at info@speedwellresearch.com).
Thank you.
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