Earlier this week, the American Arbitration Association ruled on a dispute between a former student of CECO’s California School of Culinary Arts (since rebranded the Le Cordon Bleu College of...
READ MORE >In a move that received little fanfare this past February, ESI’s board of directors established a short term element to the company’s compensation policy for senior management that could be payable in...
READ MORE >It seems to happen all of the time in growth industries, particularly among small and mid-cap companies. A leader in said growth industry goes public, creates a successful track record, which engenders investor enthusiasm about the company and...
READ MORE >Yesterday we had the opportunity to tour the floor at the National Restaurant Association’s 2013 annual conference. We wanted to pass along some key observations from our time in the exhibit...
READ MORE >For a long time we lamented the lack of “appreciation” among investors for the strength of XOXO’s key franchises, the company’s robust free cash flow prospects, and the tremendous growth potential of its...
READ MORE >Almost a year to the day from when we first introduced Z as a long idea, we’re closing it out with a 72% gain. It’s been a wild ride to say the least. Was it really only 6-months ago when the stock ticked $23.00 following...
READ MORE >Seriously, who wouldn’t love this business? In 4Q12, OPEN’s growth in diners seated per restaurant collapsed, but the company had healthy net additions in restaurant clients, stability in NA cover...
READ MORE >A few weeks ago we published a lengthy report which outlined some of the more troubling competitive developments for OPEN in North America. We maintain our view that the company is on the cusp of a major deceleration in many of its key...
READ MORE >How much are 400-600 ITT Tech students worth? In a report in which we will outline some of the critical questions surrounding ESI, this is the question we have been pondering all day. Afterall, it...
READ MORE >When we initially introduced MCRS as a short idea roughly 8-months ago, here were the principal tenets of our thesis: The elimination of the hardware “tether” could result in rapid share gains...
READ MORE >It’s true, OPEN shares are up 55.6% over the past 12-months with the stock witnessing gains of nearly 22% in the past 3-months alone. The short interest, which once represented close to 50% of the float has now...
READ MORE >In the 18-months that we have been recommending going Long shares of WWE, we have been highly critical of management’s reluctance to provide investors with the company’s general operating and financial...
READ MORE >We have little doubt that among the kernels of information included in ESI’s 2012 10-K filing that the disclosure of the subpoena from the SEC will receive the greatest attention – as it should. However, for anyone who has followed the...
READ MORE >Didn’t we go through the same experience last quarter? Zillow beat revenue and EPS for 4Q12, operating metrics were stellar, and management guided lower in large part due to increased expectations for...
READ MORE >Well at least they didn’t miss consensus revenue estimates again…. Seriously though, do you remember the “good old days” when supposed growth companies that reported a massive deceleration in operating metrics, low quality...
READ MORE >WWE shares have advanced 7.8% thus far this year compared to a 6.0% gain for the S&P 500. Despite the solid stock price performance to start the year, we doubt that many WWE investors are taking “victory laps”. After all, in the...
READ MORE >Despite all of the levers the company has pulled (cohort default rate “management”, asset sales, off-loading student loan credit risk temporarily, sale lease backs) over the past two years, it finally appears that COCO is starting to run out of...
READ MORE >MCRS reported a quarter that was as uneventful as it was uninspiring. Ultimately there were operating metrics that improved somewhat and those that could be construed as confirmation of our short thesis. Below we discuss the key positives and negatives from the quarter.
READ MORE >Who said volatility is dead? In a day that will go down in infamy for ESI investors, the stock traded in an astounding 40%+ range today. After gaping down in excess of 20% in early trading ESI shares rebounded over the course of the day to close up 17.7% - efficient...
READ MORE >Over the past month, PAA Research conducted a survey of approximately 80-85 restaurant operators a significant percentage of which are clients of OPEN and MCRS. The general purpose of the survey was to gain...
READ MORE >Yesterday we had the opportunity to tour the floor at the National Retail Federation’s “Big Show 2013”. We wanted to pass along some key observations from our time in the exhibit hall. As you might imagine given our outstanding short call on...
READ MORE >If you were to distill our short thesis on ESI into its central elements (which we’ve now had in place for almost four years now) it can be succinctly summarized in two points: 1. The company’s...
READ MORE >First and foremost we wanted to wish everyone a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year and thank you for your continued interest in our research. While there was plenty to be pleased about from a performance...
READ MORE >Coming into MCRS’s first “Investor Day” in over 13 years, we thought the burden of proof very much was on management to articulate why the proliferation of mobile POS solutions, mobile ordering, and cloud based iOS systems would not negatively impact the company’s...
READ MORE >It’s been nearly four months since we first introduced MCRS as a short idea. Since that time the stock has declined (-13%) compared to a 1% gain for the S&P 500 over the same period. As so often is...
READ MORE >It seems like only 5-6 months ago we were lamenting a similar dynamic surrounding WWE shares. Here we are again, with WWE shares plumbing decade lows even though there are ample signs that the company’s core product continues...
READ MORE >Heading into XOXO’s 3Q12 earnings release we thought we knew the following: The Knot and the Bump franchises remained incredibly strong from a consumer engagement perspective Investors had...
READ MORE >At no point over the past 3-years have we felt that we were in denial about the issues that THQI faced in trying to turn the company’s earnings prospects around. We were intimately aware of the company’s disproportionate exposures to the very segments of the video game...
READ MORE >If you told us heading into the earnings print that Zillow would have added more than 4,000 premier agent subscribers in the third quarter, we almost certainly would have expected Zillow shares to trade higher. Obviously that has not...
READ MORE >Heading into the company’s 3Q12 earnings release, OPEN shares had rallied 31.8% over the past 3-months compared to a meager 3.4% gain for the Nasdaq. Clearly investor enthusiasm for OPEN shares continued to increase over the past...
READ MORE >SELL
$50
LONG
$110
SELL/SHORT
$230
SELL/SHORT
$55
LONG
$70
SELL/SHORT
$4
SELL/SHORT
$45
SHORT
$18
SELL/SHORT
$5
SELL/SHORT
$42
LONG
$75
SELL/SHORT
$50
SELL/SHORT
$50
LONG
$5.50
SHORT
$50
SHORT
$28
LONG
$65
LONG
$37
PAIR TRADE
$10
PAIR TRADE
$30
LONG
$35
SHORT
$35
SELL/SHORT
$10
SHORT
$101
SHORT
$15
SHORT
$0
SHORT
$9
SHORT
$0
PAIR - LONG BGG/SHORT TTC
25%
SHORT
$14.00
SHORT
$22
SHORT
$15
SHORT
$20
SHORT
$31
SHORT
$35
SHORT
$30
PAIR - LONG KNL/SHORT MLHR
25%
SHORT
$100
LONG
$8
LONG
$20
SHORT
$22
PAIR - LONG CSGP/SHORT LOOP
40%
LONG
$35
SHORT
$275
SHORT
$0