Behind The Idea

Mall and retail real estate investment trusts (REITs) don't on the surface seem like a likely battleground for investors on Seeking Alpha. They are a relatively obscure sector of the market, one layer abstracted from the underlying retail business. And the business of owning real estate and lending it out to retail companies seems boring enough.

We talk about Simon Property Group (SPG) this week, and break down the intrigue around these companies.
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What's going on with 3M Company? The Q1 earnings report led to the company's worst month in at least a decade, and concerns over its future growth prospects. SA author Michael Boyd argued that this was overdue, and that there are more fundamental issues going on. Does that make sense? We review the company's recent challenges, its history of innovation, and its dividend-oriented investor base to try to find some answers.
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Starbucks is one of the great American growth stories of the last 25-50 years. That story is starting to slow, and Seeking Alpha author Atlas Research argues that the stock is a short as management denies the reality. We break down the author's argument and whether the story - declining traffic, management mis-incentives, increasing competition - checks out, and if so, what that means for the stock.
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We take a last bite at the apple with another discussion on Kinder Morgan. Seeking Alpha author Dividend Streamer, who has focused on Kinder Morgan in his Seeking Alpha time, discusses how he carves up the company's cash flow and what he sees as the company's enduring advantages.
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Our first podcast on Kinder Morgan (KMI) two weeks ago was not super well-received, so we brought on one of our critics, Seeking Alpha author and current KMI bull Kirk Spano, to discuss the company further. We get into some of the criticisms we had of the company - its use of non-GAAP metrics and the underrating of its commodity pricing exposure - as well as some of the criticisms readers had of us. Kirk also lays out his bull case for the company.
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Trupanion sparks bulls' and bears' passions even as it takes care of our cats and dogs. We bring on The CrickAnt, a Seeking Alpha author who focuses on insurance companies, to break down Trupanion's positioning and the particularities of the insurance industry. He highlights the biggest challenge the company faces - the need to gain market share while also increasing its bottom line.
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Kinder Morgan (KMI), one of the unsung market stories of this decade, is on the comeback trail. We look at recent coverage on the stock as well as a company presentation from March and notice a few familiar themes that remind us of 2013 or 2014, before the crash in the stock happened. Have investors learned their lesson from last time around, and has the company?
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You either get having pets or you don't. The same can be said for the Trupanion (TRUP) bull and bear cases - the true believers are able to produce pages of compelling research making their case either way, unable to sway one another.

We start with a bearish article which picks apart the bull case as a way into the stock. We look at what the right category for Trupanion is, whether its effect on the petcare world will be positive in the end, and where that leaves the company and the stock.
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We round out our Boeing 737 MAX 8 related coverage by speaking to a pilot. Mike interviews his friend Matt, who flies for a US airline. He shares his insights on the mechanics of flying and what might go wrong, and so what investors might want to watch for as the 737 MAX investigations continue. He also breaks down the difference between Airbus and Boeing, which really comes down to a stance on how to best insure safety.
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Boeing continues to grab headlines as the hows and whys of the recent Ethiopian Air crash are dissected by various authorities. Madhu Unnikrishnan, editor of Skift Airline Weekly, joins Mike Taylor and shares his views on the development of the 737 MAX 8, what is reasonable to expect from the review process, and how big of an impact these events might have on the company.
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