TIP751: Mastermind Q3, 2025: Uber, Merck, and Bath & Body Works

You're listening to TIP. I always look forward to recording our mastermind episodes with my good friends Tobias Carlisle and Hari Ramachandra. These are some of my favorite conversations because once a quarter, we each bring a stock to the group. And together we explore both the bull and the bear cases. It's never about just shielding a company we like. It's really about testing our ideas, asking the hard questions, and seeing where we might be wrong. Over the years, I found this format not only makes me a better investor, but also keeps me grounded and curious. And I really hope it'll do the same for you. In today's episode, I'll be pitching Uber, the world's largest ride hailing company. It's a business that many of us use frequently. But when you dig into the numbers, you see there's a fascinating story about scale, networking effects, and how the company is building an expanding ecosystem well beyond just rides. Tobias is sharing his thoughts on Bath and Body Works, which is category leader in home and personal fragrance. It's one of those companies that might fly under the radar for many investors, yet it has an incredible strong brand recognition, customer loyalty, and generates a ton of free cash flow. And finally, Harish PEG is Merck, one of the biggest names in pharmaceuticals. Merck is best known today for a blockbuster oncology drug, which has changed the landscape of cancer treatment. But like many other pharma companies, there's a challenge ahead with the Lumen patent clef, and we'll be digging into what that means for long term investors. So grab a cup of coffee, get comfortable, and join us as we dive into three very different businesses. We'll cover what makes them compelling, risk to look out for, and hopefully, leave you with a few new ideas for your own investing journey. Since 2014 and through more than 180,000,000 downloads, we've studied the financial markets and read the books that influence self made billionaires the most. We keep you informed and prepared for the unexpected. Now for your host, Stake Brodersen. Welcome to The Investor's Podcast. I'm your host, Stig Brodersen. Today, as always, I'm here with Toby and Hari. How are you today, gents? Stig Brodersen (one zero three:forty one): Hi, fellas. Good to see you. Thanks for having me, Stig. Stig Brodersen (one zero three:forty five): Yeah. Good to see you both. Thanks for having us. Stig Brodersen (one zero three:forty five): Amazing. And gents, I'm going to, shamelessly, I'm just going to go straight to the pits here. My pick is Uber, certainly a stock I think most in the audience have heard about before, dollars 190,000,000,000 in market cap. The first time the stock really came on my radar was not as a service, I should say, but as a stock worth investing in, was whenever I listened to this episode that my co hosts, Daniel and Sean, on the intrinsic value podcast, whenever …