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47/100
82Buffett
Himile: A 40%-Margin Tire-Mould Franchise Is Funding Two Adjacencies That Have Not Yet Earned Their Keep
Himile builds tire moulds, large cast and machined parts and CNC machine tools off a single precision-machining base, and the mould franchise still holds a roughly 40% gross margin while serving 66 of the world's top 75 tire companies. 2025 revenue rose 25.70% to RMB 11,078m but attributable profit rose only 18.99% to RMB 2,393m, because large-parts gross margin fell 4.09 points to 21.58% and CNC scaled faster than its own external sell-through. Rating Hold: the core is proven and the balance sheet is nearly debt-free at 21.80% ROE, but five-year operating-cash conversion is only 54%, and CNY 52.28 sits above the CNY 42 to 46 conservative fair value, leaving no margin of safety above the CNY 30 to 33 ideal buy range.
41/100
83Buffett
Houlihan Lokey: Deal Count Held, Fee Density Did Not, and the Restructuring Hedge Is Dormant
Houlihan Lokey is an independent advisory investment bank that earns transaction, restructuring and valuation fees without a trading book or a loan portfolio, with fiscal 2026 revenue of 2.618 billion USD split across Corporate Finance, Financial Restructuring and Financial and Valuation Advisory. The record year ended badly. Fiscal Q1 2027 revenue fell 15.6% to 511 million USD even though Corporate Finance closed 127 transactions against 125 a year earlier, because revenue per closing dropped from about 3.19 million USD to 2.39 million USD, while the restructuring hedge stayed quiet at a 2.70% high-yield spread. Rating Hold: at 127.01 USD the stock no longer carries a peer premium, but a 5.0% conservative owner-earnings yield against a 4.72% Treasury leaves no margin of safety above the 86 to 89 USD ideal buy range.
39/100
72Buffett
FTI Consulting: An Expert Franchise Still Raising Prices, Now Carrying Idle Capacity and Borrowed Buybacks
FTI Consulting sells senior professional judgment across restructuring, disputes, antitrust economics, e-discovery and communications, with economics driven by headcount, utilization and realized bill rates rather than physical capital. Q2 2026 set a revenue record at USD 993.5 million, up 5.3%, while net income fell 19.4% to USD 57.8 million, because SG&A jumped about 180 basis points of revenue and utilization slipped two to three points in every hourly segment even as realized rates rose 3.9% to 6.7%. Rating Hold: pricing power and the talent franchise are intact and the stock has already de-rated to roughly 16 to 17 times 2026 GAAP guidance, but debt-funded buybacks lifted net debt to USD 856.3 million and USD 151.45 sits above the conservative fair-value range of USD 125 to 140, leaving no margin of safety above the USD 95 to 105 ideal buy range.
46/100
94Buffett
Exponent: A PhD-Dense Expert Franchise Whose Reacceleration Is Real but Already Priced
Exponent is a US science-and-engineering consultancy that monetizes credentialed technical labor, roughly 950 consultants of whom 731 hold doctorates, across failure analysis, product safety, disputes and regulation. Fiscal 2026 broke a two-year growth lull, with Q2 net revenue up 12.0% on more hiring, more billable hours and higher rates, but management's own guidance implies second-half growth of only 6.7% to 8.7% once an unusually large user-research study normalizes. Rating Hold: a 28.7% EBITDA margin on net revenue and no funded debt buy a genuinely asset-light expert franchise, but at USD 67.10 the stock trades near 30 times trailing earnings on a 3.5% to 3.6% owner-earnings yield against 4.6% to 4.7% Treasuries, leaving no margin of safety above the USD 42 to 47 ideal buy range.
53/100
94Buffett
Hansoh Pharmaceutical: One Molecule, One Royalty Book, and a Price That Already Pays for Both
Hansoh Pharmaceutical is a China-focused innovative drugmaker whose derived innovative-product sales reached RMB10.24bn in FY2025 while the legacy generic tail shrank to RMB2.68bn, sitting on RMB31.55bn of cash and a licensing platform that GSK, Merck, Regeneron and Roche have each paid real upfront cash to access. Rating Hold: at HK$33.34 the stock trades 23% above the HK$27.0 conservative sum-of-the-parts value and only about 9% below the HK$36.4 base case, so the pipeline option value is already prepaid and there is no margin of safety.
39/100
95Buffett
National Beverage: A Cash-Rich LaCroix Franchise Where Price, Not Volume, Carried the Year
National Beverage Corp. is the U.S. owner-manufacturer behind LaCroix, Shasta, Faygo and Rip It, running one vertically integrated segment across twelve domestic plants instead of licensing its brands to outside bottlers. Fiscal 2026 revenue fell 1.73% as reported, but that comparison sets 52 weeks against 53; normalized per selling week, sales rose about 0.16% while weekly case volume dropped roughly 4.9% and price per case rose 5.2%, so price alone carried the year. Rating Hold: 16.0x trailing earnings and USD 156.1 million of free cash flow buy a genuinely capital-efficient franchise, but at USD 31.31 the stock sits about 19% above the USD 26.3 conservative fair value, leaving no cushion against a 90-year-old founder-CEO who beneficially owns 73.2% with no named successor.
43/100
95Buffett
WD-40 Company: A Seven-Decade Brand, a Borrowed Quarter, and No Margin of Safety
WD-40 Company is an asset-light global brand owner whose maintenance products were 97% of third-quarter sales, with most filling and packaging outsourced to contract packagers. Fiscal Q3 2026 revenue rose 24% to 195.1 million USD and operating income 47%, but roughly 7.3 million USD of that was currency and management disclosed customer pre-buying plus an unusually large U.S. promotion, so full-year guidance implies Q4 constant-currency growth near 4% and a gross margin around 51.5% against Q3's 56.6%. Rating Hold: at 229.24 USD the stock trades at about 37 times guided non-GAAP earnings and 39 times trailing owner earnings for a 2.6% free-cash-flow yield, below the 4.68% ten-year Treasury, leaving no protection against slower growth or multiple compression.
53/100
95Buffett
Manhattan Associates: 26% Cloud Growth Sits Inside 9.3% Total Revenue Growth, Existing Customers Supplied 75% of Q2 New Cloud Contract Value, and 40x SBC-Adjusted Owner Earnings Leaves No Margin of Safety
Manhattan Associates sells cloud-native supply-chain execution software for warehouses, orders and transportation, with Q2 2026 revenue of USD 297.8 million and remaining performance obligations of USD 2.47 billion. The widely quoted 26% cloud-subscription growth sits inside a company growing 9.3% overall, where services are still 44.7% of revenue, existing customers supplied 75% of Q2 new cloud contract value, and stock compensation near 10% of revenue separates adjusted EPS from shareholder economics. Rating Hold: a genuinely high-quality franchise whose USD 197.39 price sits inside the USD 170 to USD 215 fair band and roughly 40 times SBC-adjusted owner earnings, leaving no margin of safety.
40/100
96Buffett
Federated Hermes: A Durable Cash Franchise Priced for Today's Rates, Not the Next Zero
Federated Hermes is a Pittsburgh-based active manager whose record $911.6 billion of AUM is 74.3% money-market strategies, making it economically a scaled liquidity specialist attached to a smaller conventional asset manager. Q2 2026 revenue reached $502.8 million and diluted EPS $1.38, but the flow bridge shows $1.73 billion of long-term net redemptions offset by $10.79 billion of market appreciation and $3.24 billion of acquired FCP assets, so mix improvement is coming from markets and M&A rather than organic flows, while the 2021 zero-rate episode cost $143.2 million of net pre-tax earnings through fee waivers. Rating Hold: at $64.13 the shares sit inside the $55-73 acceptable-hold band and far above the $37-39 ideal buy zone, so an 11.9x trailing multiple offers no protection if short rates approach the waiver boundary.
42/100
97Buffett
Check Point: A High-Margin Cash Engine Whose Growth Gap Is Not Yet in the Price
Check Point Software Technologies is the Israeli security vendor that commercialized stateful inspection in 1993 and now sells a hybrid mesh platform spanning network, workspace, cloud and exposure management, backed by $4.2 billion of cash and securities and a standing buyback. FY2025 revenue rose 6.3% to $2.725 billion while GAAP operating margin fell from 34.2% to 30.5%, and Q2 2026 revenue grew just 1% against Fortinet's 26% at a higher 34% GAAP margin, so the subscription engine is genuine but declining appliance sales and a growth gap against all six reference peers are the binding constraints on a CEO transition not yet two years old. Rating Watch: roughly 14x owner earnings buys a durably cash-rich franchise, but at $131.72 the price sits far above the $90-96 zone where low-single-digit growth would leave a real margin of safety.
49/100
97Buffett
AJ Bell: Reconstructed FY2025 Client-Cash Interest of £136.5m Nearly Equals £137.8m Group PBT, H1 Revenue Margin Expanded to 33.4 Basis Points Instead of Compressing, and £6.18 Leaves No Margin of Safety
AJ Bell is a UK dual-channel investment platform serving advisers and self-directed investors, with £121.5bn of platform assets, 762,000 customers and record £3.0bn quarterly net inflows. Reconstructed FY2025 retained client-cash interest of about £136.5m nearly matches group pre-tax profit of £137.8m, so every additional 25 basis points passed through to customers costs roughly £15.1m, while the revenue margin expanded to 33.4 basis points rather than compressing as rates fell. Rating Hold: a genuine asset gatherer whose £6.18 price sits mid-range against a £5.30 to £7.30 fair band and 25% to 33% above the conservative case, leaving no margin of safety.
41/100
71Buffett
Hundsun Technologies: 2026 H1 Revenue Fell 11.6% While Profit Rose 0.69%, Associates Supplied CNY106.3m of Q1 Investment Income, and CNY22.12 Leaves No Conservative Margin of Safety
Hundsun Technologies supplies the core trading, investment-management, operations and wealth systems that Chinese securities firms and fund managers depend on, a franchise built on switching costs rather than on any disclosed recurring-subscription economics. Revenue has now fallen for a third consecutive period, down 9.6% in 2024, 12.1% in 2025 and about 11.6% in 2026 H1 to CNY2.144bn, while headline profit held up mainly because equity-accounted associates supplied CNY254m of income in 2025 and CNY106.3m in Q1 2026 alone, with the 24.10%-owned Ant Fund the likely dominant contributor. Rating Hold: at CNY22.12 the shares sit inside the CNY20.4-27.6 acceptable-hold band but trade near 47 times estimated owner earnings and above the CNY18 conservative value, leaving no margin of safety.
43/100
82Buffett
Ferguson Enterprises: Waterworks Is 24% of U.S. Sales Against HVAC's 13%, First-Half Volume Fell While Price Carried the 4.2% Growth, and $244.94 Yields Less Than Treasuries
Ferguson is North America's largest value-added distributor of plumbing, HVAC, waterworks and PVF products, with $31.3 billion of calendar-2025 sales across more than 1,700 locations and roughly 9% of a stated $340 billion market. Waterworks is now 24% of U.S. sales against HVAC's 13%, a mix that leaves the refrigerant-transition normalization behind Watsco's 180-basis-point gross-margin decline nearly invisible inside Ferguson's 20-basis-point one, yet first-half volume still fell while low-to-mid-single-digit pricing carried the 4.2% sales increase. Rating Hold: a genuine share gainer whose roughly 4.5% adjusted earnings yield sits below the 4.68% 10-year Treasury, leaving no conservative-case discount at $244.94.
49/100
87Buffett
Watsco: Q2 Gross Margin Fell 180 Basis Points but 130 of Them Were Last Year's A2L-Transition Pricing Benefit, and a $13.20 Dividend Now Exceeds Trailing EPS
Watsco is North America's largest HVAC distributor, supplying equipment, parts and refrigerants to more than 130,000 contractors from 695 branch locations, with Carrier and its affiliates supplying 62% of its inventory purchases and e-commerce now 37% of sales. Q2 2026 revenue grew 2% while gross margin fell to 27.5% from 29.3%, though management attributes about 130 basis points of that gap to unusual 2025 pricing, putting normalized margin near 27.5%–28.0%. Rating Hold: the franchise and the debt-free balance sheet are intact, but 26.8 times trailing earnings and a dividend above trailing EPS already price the recovery.
38/100
86Buffett
Shanxi Fenjiu: 22% More Volume but Only 7.5% More Revenue in 2025, Q1 2026 Out-of-Province Sales Fell 15% While Dealers Grew, and CNY123.52 Sits Above Conservative Value
Shanxi Fenjiu is China's dominant listed light-aroma baijiu producer, pairing premium Qinghua with the mass-market Bofen bottle across a national distributor network. FY2025 revenue grew 7.52% while alcohol volume grew 21.99% and attributable profit was flat at CNY12.246bn; Q1 2026 out-of-province revenue then fell 15.41% even as the outside distributor count rose by a net 52. At CNY123.52 the stock trades at 13.7 times trailing earnings but about 17.3 times estimated owner earnings, above the conservative CNY91–105 value range. Rating Hold: the brand and balance sheet survive, but normalized earnings are still being rediscovered downward.
33/100
88Buffett
Robert Half: Staffing Turned, Protiviti Collapsed to a 2.1% Margin, and 43.22 USD Leaves No Margin of Safety
Robert Half runs two businesses on one balance sheet: a specialist white-collar staffing franchise that supplied 64% of 2025 revenue, and Protiviti, a risk and technology consulting arm that supplied the other 36%. Talent Solutions has now posted three consecutive quarters of sequential adjusted growth with permanent placement up 2.5%, while Protiviti moved the opposite way, billable hours down almost 20% and adjusted operating margin down to 2.1%. Rating Hold: at 43.22 USD the shares sit inside the 40 to 53 USD acceptable-hold zone but above a conservative fair value near 34 USD, leaving no margin of safety and an ideal buy price of 26 to 27 USD.
43/100
86Buffett
Aier Eye Hospital: Net Goodwill Equals 43% of Book Equity, Adjusted Profit Grew 1.36% in 2025, and CNY8.71 Leaves No Conservative Margin of Safety
Aier Eye Hospital is China's largest listed ophthalmology network, combining consumer-paid refractive and optometry services with insured treatment and an acquisition-fund system that incubates hospitals before consolidating them. FY2025 revenue rose 6.53% to CNY22.353bn, but adjusted attributable profit grew only 1.36%, net goodwill of CNY9.486bn equals roughly 43% of attributable equity, and estimated domestic organic growth runs in the low- to mid-single digits. Rating Hold: at CNY8.71 the shares sit inside the CNY8.0-11.0 acceptable-hold range but 24%-34% above the CNY6.5-7.0 conservative intrinsic value, leaving no margin of safety.
48/100
87Buffett
Hithink RoyalFlush: Advertising Supplied 78% of 2025 Incremental Revenue, and CNY230.26 Already Sits at the CNY228 Base-Case Value
Hithink RoyalFlush is a very large independent Chinese financial information platform for retail investors, monetizing a free quotes-and-analysis destination through advertising, paid subscriptions, fund distribution and institutional data software. 2025 revenue rose 44.0% to CNY6.03bn and attributable net profit 75.8% to CNY3.21bn, but advertising alone was 57.4% of revenue and supplied roughly 78% of the incremental revenue, while the institution-facing software line was 6.6% of revenue and grew just 12.1%. Rating Hold: an asset-light franchise with 115% five-year cash conversion whose CNY230.26 quote already sits at the CNY228 base-case value and 46% above the CNY158 conservative case, leaving no margin of safety.
50/100
87Buffett
Eastroc Beverage: Energy Supplies 81% of Product Gross Profit While Growing 6.9%, and RMB122.93 Leaves No Conservative Margin of Safety
Eastroc Beverage is China's mass-market energy-drink leader, selling through 3,742 distributors into more than 4.5 million terminal points while adding electrolyte and ready-to-drink tea lines. H1 2026 revenue rose 15.89% to RMB12.443bn, but the core energy franchise grew only 6.89% and the Guangdong home region 2.9%, while tea revenue tripled to RMB1.058bn at a 23.7% gross margin and supplied roughly 4% of product gross profit against energy's 81%. Rating Hold: at RMB122.93 the shares sit inside the RMB116-157 acceptable-hold range but 13% above the RMB109 conservative intrinsic value, leaving no margin of safety.
38/100
88Buffett
Pientzehuang: High-Priced Core Volume Fell 21% in 2025, and CNY132.59 Still Prices In 42x Trailing Earnings
Zhangzhou Pientzehuang is a state-controlled Chinese pharmaceutical group whose economics are dominated by the legally protected Pien Tze Huang liver-medicine franchise, alongside low-margin drug distribution and a smaller cosmetics business. 2025 revenue fell 16.56% to CNY9.001bn and attributable net profit fell 27.49% to CNY2.159bn, reported as the first simultaneous decline since the 2003 listing, and the SSE inquiry response disclosed that sales volume of higher-priced liver products fell 21% while cheaper products rose 41%. Rating Hold: the legal moat and a 62.18% Q1 franchise gross margin are intact, but at CNY132.59 the stock trades near 42x trailing earnings against a conservative value of CNY100–115, leaving no margin of safety.
43/100
85Buffett
Techtronic Industries: MILWAUKEE Compounds Near 10% While RYOBI Barely Grows, and HK$142.40 Offers No Conservative Margin of Safety
Techtronic Industries owns the MILWAUKEE professional and RYOBI consumer cordless platforms, drawing three-quarters of revenue from North America, with a single customer supplying 45.4% of group revenue. H1 2026 revenue rose 5.9% to US$8.292 billion and gross margin reached a record 42.9%, but roughly 95 of the reported 258 basis points of margin gain came from lapping peak 2025 tariff cost and the HART drag, and MILWAUKEE's 10.5% underlying growth stands against RYOBI's 1.7%. Rating Hold: at HK$142.40 the shares sit above the HK$116-125 conservative intrinsic-value range, leaving no margin of safety until roughly HK$100.
51/100
62Buffett
WuXi AppTec Co., Ltd.: Chemistry Resets the Earnings Base, the U.S. Question Stays Open, and HK$199.10 Leaves No Conservative Discount
WuXi AppTec is China's largest integrated drug-discovery, development and manufacturing contractor, monetising a 3,731-molecule small-molecule funnel as customer programs move into commercial production. H1 2026 revenue rose 38.9% and adjusted net profit 83.2% to a 40.0% margin, prompting management to lift full-year revenue guidance from CNY51.3-53.0bn to CNY58.5-60.5bn. Rating Hold: at HK$199.10 the shares sit just below the HK$200-230 base intrinsic-value band and inside the HK$185-245 acceptable-hold zone, with no discount to the HK$150-170 conservative case, while U.S. customers supplied about 72% of 2025 continuing revenue.
43/100
88Buffett
Midea Group Initiation: Proven Appliance Compounder, Unearned Industrial Re-Rating
Midea is the broadest of China's appliance majors, with Smart Home at CNY299.9bn of 2025 revenue and a 29.9% gross margin against Commercial & Industrial's CNY122.8bn at 20.8%. Revenue compounded about 12.7% and attributable profit about 13.2% over 2015 to 2025 with five-year aggregate operating cash flow at 1.39 times earnings, but Q1 2026 adjusted profit fell 14.0% on a roughly CNY4.19bn finance-line reversal rather than a margin break. Rating Hold: the quality case is far better proven than the industrial re-rating, and at CNY84.29 the price sits above the CNY72 to CNY79 conservative value range with no margin of safety.
39/100
Canon Inc.: Imaging Carries the Mix Shift, Nanoimprint Stays an Option, and ¥4,628 Leaves No Conservative Discount
Canon Inc. is a diversified Japanese precision manufacturer whose printing cash flows fund faster-growing imaging, medical and semiconductor-equipment businesses. Printing supplied about 54% of 2025 sales, but Imaging and Industrial together generated roughly 45% of the four named segments' operating profit, at 16.4% and 17.3% margins against Printing's 10.3%, while nanoimprint lithography is carried as capped option value because customer engagement is verified and no named mass-production commitment is. Rating Hold: at ¥4,628 the shares trade at 11.6x guided FY2026 EPS yet sit about 2.8% above the ¥4,500 conservative value, leaving no margin of safety.