The Optimal Advisory Cost Factor accelerated on y/y basis for the eighth week in a row. For the year, costs are up (+13.7% y/y) with a sharp change in trend since early July (+3.5% y/y)…

Summary: (1) Our recent note “Channel Checks and Classes of SaaS” emphasized our bullishness on horizontal SaaS leaders (“We remain optimistic on the long-term soundness of SaaS companies like Salesforce, who control authoritative data, permissions,…

Summary: (1) Optimal proprietarily collected and analyzed quantitative and qualitative data on key attributes of brands from the perspective of elite athletes including pro, NCAA D1, elite high school, and retired athletes. Understanding the views…

Sports Ecosystem spending growth decelerated for a third consecutive week but remained strongly positive led by betting & data names, and our latest NKE analysis points to digital traffic at series highs even as other…

Summary: (1) Lots of discussions have followed from our metro market momentum analysis a month ago including the overall macro takeaway and which consumer names are more and less exposed to the bifurcation. This week…

We visited DKS stores to see NKE, private label, footwear and other BTS presentations. Our channel checks suggest Hoka and FP Movement are “hot brands” for BTS. We also walked High Street shopping to see…

The Optimal Advisory Cost Factor accelerated on y/y basis for the seventh week in a row. For the year, costs are up (+11.7% y/y, up from +3.5% y/y in early July) primarily on energy and…

Summary: (1) We are having conversations on shifts in AI Lab Card purchases, as growth flattened in Q2 and slightly declined in Q3 (see Charts of the Week); (2) Anthropic continues as top share of…

Sports Ecosystem spending growth decelerated for a second consecutive week but remained positive. Our thesis remains intact – the Sports Ecosystem is growing 2x GDP but has very different trajectories between companies and our subsectors….

Summary: (1) We are having conversations on back-to-school tone and trends, taking inflation and certain pockets out of the trend we note softness – and a demographic / economic tough mix for 2026 … (see…

The Optimal Advisory Cost Factor accelerated on y/y basis for the sixth week in a row. For the year, costs are up (+9.9% y/y, was last running down y/y in March) primarily on energy and…

We’ve implemented our Optimal Tech revenue quality framework to assess vertical SaaS leaders after a month of earnings reports. Historically, premium software multiples have accrued to companies with true moats: low churn, high switching costs,…

Sports Ecosystem spending held near its recent highs this week even as Optimal’s subsector equity indices mostly trailed a flat market, and our latest NKE analysis continues to point to vastly improving digital momentum: (1)…

Summary: (1) We are fielding more questions from capital and corporates on how the pressured consumer is driven by broader economic trends – this week we unpack employee confidence level and change by sector throughout…