“The stock chart going sideways for five years isn't anything to do with the quality of the business. It's wholly to do with the price.”
The Investor's Podcast (We Study Billionaires) - The Investor’s Podcast Network · November 2026
Context
Reacting to the S&P Global pitch, Tobias called it one of the world's great businesses. As the value investor of the group, he explains why a flat share price doesn't mean the business has weakened.
Transcript
…discussions, they always use pharma as an example saying, Do you want us to be like FDA, having an FDA for AI? It will slow down the innovation. It'll become like pharma and we don't want to get there. So that's that's an interesting comparison and to see how the AI industry is looking at pharma.
…closer to 23. And it's because earnings have gone up. And I do think that it will continue to be so. Jens, let me throw it over to you guys. I still have a section here about the management and also a bit about valuation, but I want to hear from you guys first here before I continue the thesis.
I'll go first. I'm a huge fan of SPGR. It's one of the world's great companies. Incredibly moti, incredible high returns on invested capital. Very well protected. As you say, if you think that the world's gonna keep on issuing debt, then stay away. But I think that's a pretty good bet that the world's gonna keep on issuing debt. It's a name that's been around for more than 100 years, 100 plus years. Yes, spectacular business, one of the world's great businesses. The stock chart going sideways for five years isn't anything to do with the quality of the business. It's wholly to do with the price. And so, you know, I'm the value guy. So that's really where my interest is. Talk to me a little bit about where you see the valuation and what you see the returns like from here, given the price.
I sometimes feel that it's whenever you see a stock chart that's moving sideways or even seeing one that's just going south, you're like, oh my God, this is an amazing opportunity. And then depending on your mood, sometimes you're like, oh, this has gone up for the past five years. It's probably…
Yeah, a very, very interesting pick, Steve. And as Toby said, this is one of those companies, Moody's and S&P Global,. Those of us who have been admirers of Buffett, we have heard Buffett saying Moody's or SP is like a great business. Always looked in envy because the valuations were always very…
Yeah, I am pretty skeptical about market intelligence. So I think you bring up a great point. Let me pull up the numbers here. So you're absolutely right. Market intelligence ratings are approximately same share of revenue, but the margins are very different. So market intelligence are only 17.9%…
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