Highlights From The Sohn Conference in San Francisco

None of the Sohn Conferences is as exciting as the New York Conference but Sohn’s San Francisco Conference comes close. The 9th annual Sohn San Francisco Investment Conference was held a few days ago and we are going to summarize the stock pitches made at the Conference. It is my perception that usually it is a better idea to wait a few weeks to initiate a position in these stocks at much better prices that the prevailing prices after the stock pitches were made.

Gil Simon’s SoMa Equity Partners: Long New York Times (NYT)

The best way to understand Gil Simon’s New York Times thesis is by watching the video below:

Gil Simon basically saying that newspapers are dead but news isn’t. New York Times’ online subscription model is similar to software publishers’ or music sellers’ subscription model (i.e. all recurring revenue with very small distribution costs). SoMa Capital started buying NYT shares at the end of 2017. Gil Simon expects NYT to epxand margins and reach $40-$50 within a couple of years.

Glen Kacher’s Light Street Capital: Farfetch Limited (FTCH)

You can watch the following video for the details of Kacher’s investment thesis in FTCH.

Light Street Capital returned 38.6% in 2017, so it is among the best performing large hedge funds last year. Kacher believes Amazon doesn’t pose a serious threat for Farfetch, a marketplace stocks for luxury good retailers. FTCH will dominate this niche market and expand revenues and earnings in the coming years.

Kevin Oram’s Praesidium Investment Management: Cornerstone OnDemand (CSOD)

Kevin Oram also talked to CNBC and explained his investment thesis:

Kevin Oram believes Cornerstone OnDemand is a turnaround play that is likely to nearly double in a few years. Oram expects CSOD to be acquired by any of Microsoft Corp, Oracle Corp., or Salesforce.com after the business is transformed. He has a $90 price target.

Mark Desio’s Lucha Capital: Talend S.A. (TLND)

Desio pitched Talend (TLND) as a growth and acquisition play with a target price of $105. Here is how CNBC summarized Desio’s investment thesis:

“Lucha Capital recommended investors buy Talend for its role as an enterprise data company. With data growth set to scale five times over the next five years, Desio said companies like Talend will be essential to help companies and governments manage data volume, sources and models.

The manager said Talend has a disruptive pricing model — priced per user, no data volume tax, scalable and predictable. Desio also highlighted what he views as a great board of directors: “You rarely see this kind of quality of board members” for such a small company, he said.”

We will continue sharing stock pitches from the Sohn Conference on the next page.