Investors / stance tracking
What Chuck Akre is saying
FollowFollowingUnfollowChairman & CIO, Akre Capital Management
15 dated public stances tracked since 2012-03-23, most recently 2025-12-25. Each line carries the date and the venue it came from; quotation marks mean verbatim. Methodology.
The stances below are c8alpha's editorial distillation of Chuck Akre's public commentary — television, podcasts, and interviews — compiled by automated transcript analysis and dated to the episode they came from. They may lag the speaker's current view and may contain extraction errors. Text in quotation marks is verbatim from the episode; everything else is our paraphrase. Chuck Akre is not affiliated with c8alpha and has not endorsed this page. Nothing here is investment advice.
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15
tracked stances
7
themes
0
side flips
2025-12-25
last heard
Returns 90d -2.0% 38% correct · 8 calls · 180d -3.3% 50% correct · 8 calls · 1y +11.7% 100% correct · 5 calls
Raw direction-aware returns on public statements — long calls credited when the price rose, shorts when it fell, shorts capped at −100% — in a rising market this mostly measures who was long, not who has skill. Returns run from the stance date; calls are rarely closed publicly, so fixed 90-day / 180-day / 1-year horizons are used. A horizon shows only once it has fully matured, and only at 5+ scored stances. “% correct” is the share of those scored calls whose direction-aware return was positive at the horizon — in a rising market a bullish call is correct by default, so read it beside the market, not alone.
Scored calls
Every tracked call with at least one matured horizon: the rows behind the Returns line above. A dash is a horizon that has not matured yet.
| Date | Name | Call | 90d | 180d | 1y |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-12-25 | MCO | bullish | -17.5% | -14.2% | — |
| 2025-12-25 | MA | bullish | -13.1% | -15.5% | — |
| 2025-12-25 | AMT | bullish | -4.3% | +4.7% | — |
| 2025-10-29 | MKL | bullish | +10.2% | +3.8% | +2.2% |
| 2023-11-30 | V | owns | +11.5% | +6.0% | +23.7% |
| 2023-11-30 | MA | bullish | +15.9% | +7.9% | +29.5% |
| 2022-03-20 | V | bullish | -10.3% | -10.6% | +1.3% |
| 2022-03-20 | MA | bullish | -8.0% | -8.5% | +1.7% |
Most-argued themes
| Theme | Stances | Lean | Mix | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MA | 4 | 4 bullish | 2025-12-25 | |
| V | 3 | 3 bullish | 2023-11-30 | |
| AMT | 2 | 2 bullish | 2025-12-25 | |
| MCO | 2 | 2 bullish | 2025-12-25 | |
| COMMON STOCKS (EQUITIES AS ASSET CLASS) | 1 | 1 bullish | 2020-05-22 | |
| MKL | 1 | 1 bullish | 2025-10-29 |
Tracked stances
bullish / bearish is a view they argued; owns / short is a position they said they hold.
Moody's has an unassailable franchise in credit rating duopoly that survived the financial crisis blame intact; after meeting management and concluding they were honorable people who exercised bad judgment rather than acting dishonorably, the business…
“the business itself was a terrific business... been hugely successful”
90d -17.5% · 180d -14.2%
How We Find Compounding Machines - Chuck Akre & John Neff
Mastercard operates the rails for global electronic exchange of value with secularly improving odds of being involved in any purchase transaction regardless of form factor, giving it an extraordinarily durable above-average return on capital that is nearly…
“I would probably choose Mastercard”
90d -13.1% · 180d -15.5%
How We Find Compounding Machines - Chuck Akre & John Neff
American Tower is the dominant toll-booth in global wireless infrastructure growth, with incremental returns on a new antenna north of 90% once break-even is reached, and benefits from each generational upgrade (1G through 5G) requiring a denser antenna…
“the incremental turn is probably north of 90%, which is a very powerful business model”
90d -4.3% · 180d +4.7%
How We Find Compounding Machines - Chuck Akre & John Neff
2025-10-29
MKL
bullish
Chuck Akre · video
Markel has compounded book value per share at ~14-17% annually over 20 years and still trades below 10x real economic earnings (book value growth per share), making it attractively valued for long-term compounding despite a low-rate tailwind headwind
“it's still selling for less than 10 times in our judgment the way we look at”
90d +10.2% · 180d +3.8% · 1y +2.2%
How the Compounding Effect Build Millionaire’s | Chuck Akre | Stocks | Investment
MasterCard earns ~34% after-tax ROE vs. ~8% for the average business, enabling high-rate compounding reinvestment that mechanically drives per-share value at the same rate as the business return
“MasterCard earns 34%... my God it's really incredible”
90d +15.9% · 180d +7.9% · 1y +29.5%
Chuck Akre - 3-Legged Stool (AMAZING TRICK)
Visa shares MasterCard's mid-30s net margin profile, far above the single-digit average, giving it the same high-ROE compounding characteristics Akre's fund seeks
“an investment that we own... is MasterCard and Visa... they're in the mid-30s”
90d +11.5% · 180d +6.0% · 1y +23.7%
Chuck Akre - 3-Legged Stool (AMAZING TRICK)
Mastercard earns ~34% net margins versus the ~8-10% average business, reflecting an exceptional durable business model that allows reinvestment of free cash at high rates of return to compound owner capital
“mastercard earns 34 — even if the average were 10, mastercard's 34 my god it's really incredible”
90d -8.0% · 180d -8.5% · 1y +1.7%
How To Beat The Market With Compounding - Chuck Akre
Said again: 2022-04-25 (Chuck Akre)
Visa earns ~34% net margins versus the ~8-10% average business, reflecting an exceptional durable business model that allows reinvestment of free cash at high rates of return to compound owner capital
“mastercard and visa — they're in the mid 30s, you could cut that in half twice and at worst it would be an average business”
90d -10.3% · 180d -10.6% · 1y +1.3%
How To Beat The Market With Compounding - Chuck Akre
2020-05-22
COMMON STOCKS (EQUITIES AS ASSET CLASS)
bullish
Chuck Akre · video
Common stocks have historically returned ~9% annually on an unlevered basis versus 1.4% on the 30-year Treasury, making them the highest-returning asset class over long periods and the only rational home for capital meant to compound across decades
“the bottom line of all investing is rate of return”
What do we do with the 'EXTRA' money by Chuck Akre
Moody's is one of only two real global rating agencies (with S&P) in a market-driven duopoly where any debt issuer is compelled to get rated, generating captive high-return demand; bought at ~$39, now $110, and currently trades at ~19x forward FCF which is…
“if you sit on the board of a company about to raise debt and you don't get a rating... you have a liability”
Trying to Solve the Investment Puzzle | Chuck Akre | Talks at Google
Mastercard earns mid-30% net margins vs single-digit industry average, operates an electronic exchange of value toll booth that is durable across payment form factors, and currently trades at ~19x forward FCF which is attractive against a 1.5% 10-year yield
“you could cut that in half twice and at worst it would be an average business — it's extraordinary”
Trying to Solve the Investment Puzzle | Chuck Akre | Talks at Google
American Tower sits at the toll-booth intersection of each successive wireless generation (1G through 5G requiring denser tower networks), earns marginal returns north of 90% per incremental tenant above break-even, and now operates in 15 countries; currently…
“the marginal return is in the high 90% range — it's unbelievable”
Trying to Solve the Investment Puzzle | Chuck Akre | Talks at Google
Visa shares the same exceptional-margin electronic payment toll-booth economics as Mastercard and was added to the portfolio as a complement when concentration limits in the mutual fund were reached
Trying to Solve the Investment Puzzle | Chuck Akre | Talks at Google
SBA Communications shares the same tower infrastructure toll-booth economics as American Tower and was added to the portfolio when concentration limits prevented further AMT accumulation in the mutual fund
Trying to Solve the Investment Puzzle | Chuck Akre | Talks at Google
2012-03-23
long TJX / long ROST / long DLTR
basket
Chuck Akre · video
Off-price retailers TJX, Ross Stores, and Dollar Tree are positioned to outperform because the US consumer is structurally constrained by unemployment, debt paydown, limited credit access, and higher taxes — making this decade far less robust for spending…
“those three off-price retailers are an important part of our portfolio”
Chuck Akre Likes TJX, Ross Stores, Dollar Tree Stocks
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