Late last week, Ensemble’s CIO Sean Stannard-Stockton appeared on CNBC to talk about our investment outlook and some of our holdings. In the clip below, Sean presents our thinking on Illumina and Nintendo.

• The acquisition of GRAIL has created a major regulatory headache for Illumina and caused investors to lose confidence in management. But with the CEO stepping down, it is clear that the GRAIL situation will be resolved one way or another as shareholder concerns have been recognized.
• Carl Icahn’s partially successful activism campaign is predicated on the idea that core Illumina is a much, much more valuable company that the stock market valuation currently reflects. While it may take more time to resolve the GRAIL situation than Icahn would like, it will be resolved at some point and we agree that core Illumina is worth much more than the current share price.
• It is important that investors not lose sight of the fact that Illumina’s genetic sequencing technology is one of the most important technologies that exists today. The technology was instrumental in the development of the COVID vaccine, the acquisition of GRAIL is based on Illumina’s critical role in radically reducing cancer deaths, and there is widespread agreement in the medical field that genetic sequencing is the key to the next decade of medical advancements.
• The massive box office success of Nintendo’s Super Mario movie demonstrates the widespread appeal of their intellectual property. A majority of movie goers were adults, not kids, showing the nostalgic power of Nintendo’s games, which today’s parents grew up playing in the 1980s.

Click on the image below to watch the full interview.

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