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“There is a mismatch between the strength of the Shake Shack brand and thecompany’s results,” wrote John Zolidis, president of Quo Vadis Capital, who notes that stores often lose customers after a period.

“Our hypothesis is that the brand has fad-like characteristics, and it loses novelty after a few trials or when outside of very high-profile locations (waiting in line at a shopping mall in Columbus, Ohio is not like being in Times Square),” Zolidis said.

“I was also intrigued by some commentary from John Zolidis, who’s an analyst at Quo Vadis Capital, who covers it, who talks about the Mirror deal that they did.
Remember they own that Mirror app and hardware, I guess, that’s an at-home workout system. He said, ‘maybe it’s a super smart deal that will be ultimately great for profitability and shareholders. But we can’t help thinking this stock would be higher today without this drag’.”

Quo Vadis says the company’s model is “maladapted,” and rate the stock sell.

“Bulls want Grocery Outlet to be a long-term high-ROIC compounder with an enormous total addressable market. This is simply not the case,” wrote John Zolidis, president of Quo Vadis.

“There is no ‘white space’ where consumers do not already have options to buy discounted food. Grocery Outlet will have to enter new markets where its brand is unknown, consumer preferences are different, and entrenched competitors are in place with superior real estate. It’s not going to be easy.”

Meanwhile, rising corporate taxes are bad for Wall Street because they reduce the cash flow to stockholders and, therefore, shave off every profitable listed company’s intrinsic value. “Higher tax rates mean lower earnings,” Quo Vadis President John Zolidis said. “Higher tax rates also reduce a company’s economic return. A business’ economic return (how much value it creates for shareholders) determines in part what multiple it should trade relative to earnings. A lower return equals a lower multiple. Thus, higher tax rates for corporations will result in lower earnings (the ‘E’) and also justify a lower earnings multiple (how you get to the ‘P’ in the price to earnings ratio (PE).”

“Luckin was already one of the most unusual situations we’d ever seen,” Quo Vadis Capital analyst John Zolidis said in a note. “This continued today as the company announced a change in auditor, with the previous auditor apparently unable or unwilling to complete the job.”

Already Walmart has something of a competitor to digital “neobank” startups in the form of MoneyCard, which can take direct deposits and describes itself as “the only card for all your banking needs.” Reaching the unbanked is key, though also risky. John Zolidis, president of Quo Vadis Capital, estimates that around one-quarter of Walmart customers don’t have a bank account and that half don’t have access to credit.