Brad Thomas
Founder & Lead Analyst of Wide Moat Research
Ahold Delhaize stays in a portfolio that finished a grinding quarter up over 25% year to date. x.comÂ
Best Mart 360 is a reasonable setup at a single-digit P/E, with declining rents, debt wiped out and a growing store count. Stores rose from 170 in January 2025 to 184, an 8.2% increase, and now to 191, with the latest additions all from the core Best Mart 360 brand while FoodVille stays at 8. It remains to be seen what JD does with Kai Bo. x.comÂ
Loblaw is a boring, recession-resistant compounder whose grocery and pharmacy businesses generate steady cash. The stock is up over 110% in three years and split 4-for-1 in 2025. x.comÂ
Kroger keeps quietly rewarding shareholders with dependable, defensive results, because everybody has to eat. In Q2 FY26 sales rose just 2% to $34.6B, but operating profit grew 12.5% to $971M as Kroger trimmed D&A and held costs flat. Net earnings rose 5%, while EPS jumped 15% to $1.05 because aggressive buybacks shrank the share count from 662M to 606M. x.comÂ
Walmart keeps compounding through recessions because people never stop eating in bad years; they buy more chicken and less filet, and Walmart sells the chicken. It compounded through the 2001, 2008 and 2020 recessions. Wealth comes from finding a business that never has a truly bad year, not from moonshots. x.comÂ
United Natural Foods' 20% drop on an in-line report is clearly overdone. Free cash flow is still over $5 per share, a double-digit yield on a stable, non-cyclical business. x.comÂ
General Mills will struggle to raise prices or grow as GLP-1 drugs and inflation push shoppers toward store brands and away from cereals. It has two years of negative EPS growth and estimates, and its operating cash flow and margins should suffer in that environment. The company does produce cash and is cheap, as @calvinfroedge notes with $2-3B of annual operating cash flow and a shareholder yield above 10%. x.com x.comÂ