2026 March Market Cap Madness: Andy vs. Loren

13:20Andy Cross:I may not be aware. Surely I have. But it's not the sort of information I look for. Like, it's in the off chance, you know, I'm on a model that's been recalled or something. I don't really want to know that whenever I'm going wherever I'm going.

13:33Loren Horst:I think that's a good point. So if you and Andy are flying together and Andy can't find that little card in his seat back pocket, he's like, dude, could I see that card?

13:41Andy Cross:You can borrow mine any day. You can have it. I was going to say, I got you covered. Yeah.

13:45Loren Horst:All right, Lauren. Andy said$250 billion to$350 billion. So, I mean, you got$100 billion to work with here. Players at home, Lauren Hurst, do you want to agree with Andy's range or disagree with Andy's range?

13:58Andy Cross:My first instinct was that this company is a little bit smaller. So I'm going to throw a little bit of a curveball here and agree with Andy.

14:08Loren Horst:So you are both saying you think it's smaller than his range, but you're going to agree with him?

14:13Andy Cross:I'm disagreeing with my instinct here.

14:16Loren Horst:I see. So to be very clear, and players at home, you need to say this too. Lauren, I'm going to count you down, 3, 2, 1. I want you to simply say agree or disagree. 3, 2, 1.

14:25Andy Cross:Agree.

14:26Loren Horst:And if you too agreed with Andy Cross's range of$250 to$350 billion, along with Lauren Hurst, don't give yourself a point because it is in fact a smaller company than Andy was foreseeing. And some of that instinct, the whole go with your gut thing, Lauren, I mean,$176.95 billion. So this is a company that's been up and down over the years. You know, for such an important company that my snap test, if you snapped your fingers and this company disappeared, would anyone notice? Would anyone care? I mean, an absolute ton of people would notice. A lot of people would care if Boeing disappeared. And yet it's gotten in some trouble over the years, Andy.

15:06Loren Horst:And its stock has not been as strong as you might hope for from this American bellwether.

15:10Andy Cross:Oh, it certainly has struggled. And its dominant position in not just commercial, but also providing on the military side as a global manufacturer, it has not been the best always stock over the last 10 years. When they do everything right, you don't notice it. Whenever they do anything wrong, it's headline news.

15:28Loren Horst:So true. And just looking at the stock, which I've never owned myself, but it had a raging run from somewhere$130 a share in 2016. It topped out over$400 just three years later. These days, it's closer to$225. So up and down. But, you know, take the long haul like I'm looking back more than 30 years now. It's up. Speaking of up, Andy, you are now up two to one. Let's move on to stock number four. All right. Back to you, Lauren. When people think about the biggest technology platforms in the world, they, you know, Amazon, Alphabet, Google, maybe Meta. How often do you hear someone casually mention one base, though, in Shenzhen?

16:12Andy Cross:Not too often. And I imagine what geographic region that is. I'm not positive which country that's in.

16:19Loren Horst:Yeah, that's OK. You may not have been to China before. Have you been yet?

16:22Andy Cross:I haven't.

16:23Loren Horst:Excellent. Well, it's a great place. I know you spent some of the holidays, though, in Milan.

16:28Andy Cross:It was wonderful. I highly recommend it.

16:30Loren Horst:Pre-Olympics, although, Lauren, we were talking about this before the show began. I mean, you can definitely claim you were at the Olympics if you were there over the Christmas holiday.

16:36Andy Cross:They had the countdown clock, so that's got to count.

16:37Loren Horst:Excellent. You still have China ahead of you. But yes, there's an entire parallel digital universe operating at massive scale that many Americans don't interact with directly. but I'm thinking about messaging, gaming, payments, e-commerce. This is a company that dominates its home market, yet sits outside many of our daily experience here in the West. Lauren, I know you're a gamer. Have you ever played League of Legends? I have not. It's funny because it is such a popular game, and yet I, too, have not really played League of Legends. It's intense. You know, multiplayer games on the Internet where you're trying to knock people over or take them out altogether.

17:14Loren Horst:As I age, I'm 59, I find that I tend to be the guy who gets knocked out, so I don't play these games as much as I once did. Do you play any violent games where you get to knock people like me out?

17:24Andy Cross:Person-to-person? Certainly, yeah. I mean, I like more single-player storyline games, but there are some rough-em-up games that are certainly good to play as well.

17:31Loren Horst:Yeah. All right. Been playing anything recently?

17:33Andy Cross:I'm currently, as we've talked before about my nostalgia, I'm replaying some - Assassin's Creed? I went through Assassin's Creed. Now I'm replaying Sherlock Holmes games from a decade ago, which were, interestingly enough, I think the only video games I've seen were there was a little NVIDIA name card on the loading screen. That was pretty cool.

17:53Loren Horst:That is, that's old school. I will say, I was inspired by what you said when you were on, I think, was it June when you competed and made it? So you were playing through the Assassin's Creed series at that point. So I was like, I have so many of these Assassin's Creed games, I'm going to play one of them. And I'm still stuck on Assassin's Creed Origin, which is the one set in Egypt. An excellent game. I really am enjoying it months later.

18:14Andy Cross:Yeah, if you play the downloadable content as well, there are hundreds of hours worth of game playing time to go through there.

18:22Loren Horst:OMG, I don't think I'm going to do that. There are other things to play, too. All right. Well, stock number four is Tencent Holdings, ticker symbol TCEHY. It's one of those ADRs with a Y on the end. This company was founded in 1998. Tencent built WeChat into one of the most powerful super app ecosystems on Earth. It integrates messaging payments. We don't really have things like this. I wouldn't say in the United States of America you're gaming commerce into your daily life. Well, for more than a billion of our fellow Earthlings, Lauren Hurst, what is your stated market cap range for 10 cent ticker symbol TCEHY?

19:01Andy Cross:And this is a company I haven't followed recently. I used to own shares because they own Epic Games. They own the Unreal Engine. There definitely is a video game exposure there, but it's a it's a relatively smaller portion of the business. So I didn't really understand the rest and I don't own it anymore. This is one I'm very confident is in the hundreds of billions of dollars. The question is how many of them. So I'm going to throw out a range here of$450 to$700 billion.

19:35Loren Horst:$450 billion to$700 billion. So, you know, you got$250 to work with or so, Andy. And yeah, this is actually a stock I picked for Rule Breakers back in 2017. I was checking. It was at$39 a share. The Rule Breakers team ultimately sold that in December of 2022. I had stepped away from our company a year earlier. They sold at$38. So we were down a dollar. That's sad. It is up higher than that, but we're not going to talk how high because I don't want to help Andy and our players at home any more than I may just have. Andy, Lauren said$450 to$700 billion. Do you want to agree with that range or do you want to disagree with that range?

20:15Loren Horst:I'm going to disagree with that range. And what is it that is making you want to disagree? Is it just Lauren or is it Tencent or is it numbers?

20:23Andy Cross:It's actually, Lauren made a very strong case in his preamble about knowing the company, playing the games, you know, that explanation. Yeah, I agree with that. He had me going for a little bit. I just, this is not one that I really have ever looked at. And I think if it was that large is my mind, I would have looked at it.

20:42Loren Horst:But now, who knows? We'll have to let the numbers tell. We're about to find out. Okay, players at home, Andy disagreed. What do you do? All right, you just said it. And 10 cents market cap is$591.34 billion squarely within Lauren's wide range, 450 to 700. If you agreed with Lauren, including Lauren himself, give yourself a plus one. We are tied two to two. You know, I was looking more into this. I don't use WeChat. About a billion of us do. Some of our listeners definitely do. But it's not just a messaging app. It's basically a super app in China. You can pay bills. You book your travel, schedule your doctor visits.

21:21Loren Horst:You can even file for government services within that one ecosystem. And yeah, Lauren, games as well.

21:28Andy Cross:If there was ever one super app in any country in the world, it is Tencent inside of China.

21:34Loren Horst:Well said. And, you know, this is a company, again, games are a big thing. I haven't even said their biggest brand yet, I think. But when Lauren mentioned Epic Games, that's the company behind Fortnite. So yeah, Tencent, if you've ever played Fortnite, you have been a customer. All right, guys, it's our final four. We're four stocks in and it's two to two. This is, I'm rubbing my hands together. This is just what we're looking for from March Market Cap Madness. Let's move on to stock number five. Andy, if a friend tells you they're starting a small business tomorrow, what's the first digital asset you might suggest they create and maybe try to own?

22:13Loren Horst:Probably an app. Probably an app. And, you know, I think that's exactly the right answer here for 2026. Now, when we started The Motley Fool in 1993, It was just a print newsletter. We came online with AOL in 1994. People weren't even saying World Wide Web yet. But at that point, we started to build out our own website. Correct, which is sort of the word that preceded the apps. And these days, I think you need to have both. Now, not everybody wants to build their own app or their own website. In fact, entire companies have been built on the idea that anyone, literally anyone, could launch a website in an afternoon.

22:50Loren Horst:Now, there are a bunch of companies that do this. these days, and some of them really play up how AI-centric they are as well. I don't know this one as well, but I think you guys do. Based in Israel, Wix.com. LTD is stock number five. The ticker symbol is WIX. And I'm turning back to you, Andy. Any thoughts, first of all, before you give your market cap range just about Wix or the world at large?

23:14Andy Cross:Well, I sold my Wix position about, I want to say in the past year and a half, maybe. And I haven't really looked at it much recently. So this will be coming out of it because it was much larger when I sold it.

23:26Loren Horst:I hasten to add we're only an audio podcast. There's no video component. Neither Lauren nor Andy has a computer or anything near them. So he's just sitting there staring at the table trying to remember where he sold his Wix and what the market cap probably is. Now, I, on the other hand, do have a flipped up laptop looking at all the numbers. So I know everything and I can answer any question for anyone. These guys, soundproof chamber until we got here today. No access to laptops. Andy, I was just about to ask you your stated market cap range for Wix.com Limited, ticker symbol WIX, except... This is a throwdown.

24:03Loren Horst:That's right. It's throwdown time. Pencils out, fools. Andy and Lauren will now write down their best market cap range for Wix.com Limited, ticker symbol WIX. X, once they share their ranges, you at home, your job is just to pick the contestant that you think made the better guess. You simply say, Andy or Lauren, when I ask, and if you're right, you score a point. Now, a couple of points here about how we score. As these guys think of their guesses, if only one of them gets the market cap range right, of course, that correct guess wins the point. But what if both are right? Well, then the contestant with the tighter range takes the point.

24:44Loren Horst:What if both are wrong? Obviously, that doesn't happen. These guys are professionals. But supposing this ever should happen, if they both miss, we measure proximity. Whichever boundary is closest to the true market cap wins the point. We do this, the throwdown, twice every show. This is the first. Let's do it. Stock number five again, Wix.com, ticker symbol Wix. I'll now turn to Andy first. Andy, what have you written down?

25:12Andy Cross:I've written down 2.35 billion to 4.1 billion.

25:19Loren Horst:So I noticed that you extended to two decimals for the bottom of your range. Andy, you were not willing to maybe go with that second decimal at the top end, or was it a zero?

25:28Andy Cross:I was not because I missed the first game we played in Globin, so I wasn't that confident on the higher side.

25:36Loren Horst:All right, good. So 2.35 to 4.1 billion. Lauren, what have you written down?

25:42Andy Cross:David, I wrote down 7 billion to 12 billion. So I'm hoping that at least one of us got this because otherwise we might have to do some math if it fell in between us. All right.

25:52Loren Horst:Again, players at home, if you liked Andy's call of 2.35 to 4.1 billion, you're going to say Andy. If you liked Lauren's call, 7 billion to 12 billion, you're going to say, Lauren, I'm going to count it down for you. You need to say one of those names who you think is right three two one all right you said it well it did fall between you but the market cap of wix.com is 4.13 billion which andy was not willing to extend with that extra decimal so technically it was outside his range but it was so proximate to one of his range numbers that that's an easy plus one for andy cross and so if you said andy give yourself a plus one.

26:36Loren Horst:All right. Wow. In some ways it was really close. In other ways, not so close. Lauren off seven to 12, dropping back one point as we reach halftime. So I see it as Andy cross three, Lauren Hurst two. We're about to do our halftime follies, but let me ask you player at home. What's your score? Nice. All right, guys, it's halftime. And as we've taken to do in recent shows, it's time for you each to tell a joke. And I was trying to decide who should tell the joke first. And it obviously has to be Rochambeau, rock, paper, scissors. Whoever loses has to tell his joke first. Guys, if you would, three, two, one, shoot.

27:13Loren Horst:And I see Andy has defeated Lauren in rock, paper, scissors. Therefore, Lauren gets to tell his joke first.

27:20Andy Cross:All right. Two day traders are discussing their luck lately with the stock market. One laments to the other, you know, some days I try to buy zero data expiration calls and on other days I'll try to buy same day puts. But, you know, with how bad my portfolio has been performing lately, I'd have better luck investing in my own failure. His companion looks to him and says, hey, man, don't think like that. Failure is not an option.

27:45Loren Horst:All right. That's pretty good. Using a pun. Well done, Lauren. I was wondering whether like his buddy was already shorting him or betting against him. That's what I was thinking. Yeah. You were thinking he might go there. No, it's just a straight up one. Well done, Lauren Hurst. Andy. I'm going short and sweet here, team. So I'm saying, you know, David, parallel lines have so much in common. It's really a shame they'll never meet. So we're not going to score the jokes. Andy, I have to admit, I did not laugh at that. Lauren, you did seem to chuckle at Andy's joke. Was that just being a good sport or did he actually make you laugh with his never the twain shall meet?

28:22Andy Cross:I love comedy. That was not a courtesy laugh. I may have liked the writing and the setup of my joke more, but I think your delivery was much better. I liked your setup too, Lauren.

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29:57Loren Horst:On average, users reported saving over$200 a month after joining. It gives you the clear picture you need to be a better investor. Set yourself up for financial success in 2026 with Monarch, the all-in-one tool that makes proactive money management simple all year long. Use code INVESTING at Monarch.com for half off your first year. That's 50 % off your first year at Monarch.com with code INVESTING. All right, let's move to the second half of the show. Andy, our former world champion and last year's runner-up. You've only ever lost one market cap game show And you're up at halftime If I were a sideline reporter asking you Kind of your plans or expectations For the team coming out in the second half What would you say at this point?

30:49Andy Cross:Well, it's only up by one So you've got to keep fighting If the game's only halfway through It's a full 10-question game Or 11, just in case there's a tie

30:57Loren Horst:And that has happened before Lauren Hurst, I'm just grabbing you As you come out of the locker room Your thoughts here in advance of the second half You're down 3-2

31:04Andy Cross:I mean, all we have to do in the second half is just compete with our opponent. They have to compete against us and the expectations.

31:12Loren Horst:And you take it one stock at a time, right? All right, let's move on to stock number six, turning to Lauren. Lauren, you see a company, you're looking over a stock, you're researching the stock, it's got a four-digit share price. So it's priced in the thousands. All other things remaining equal and focusing just on that. Does that spark any thoughts in your investing mind? I'm not talking about predicting what company. I mean, just like psychologically, does that do anything to you when you see a four digit share price?

31:42Andy Cross:And I think it's balanced. It's in two directions. On one hand, there's a little bit of hesitance because I know I'm not going to be able to accumulate a lot of shares. But on the other hand, I know not only that fractional shares are available, but this is a company that probably went public, you know, maybe in a 20 or 30 dollar range. And they have succeeded their way to the price that they trade at today.

32:04Loren Horst:Both are good thoughts. Let me just tweak it one more time, Lauren. We're going to stay in your head for this follow up. How about this? It's an interesting stock to research. It has a four digit stock price and it's traded on a foreign exchange. How does that torque your thinking?

32:23Andy Cross:Well, now I'm just confused as to what company it could be. Because initially I was thinking Booking Holdings or Mercado Libre, and now I'm not sure where to go next.

32:31Loren Horst:Yeah, and I really, truth be told, fools, I was not trying to get you to predict which company it is, although we're about to talk about that. But just as you look over stocks and you're like, this looks like an interesting company, you read more about it, you're like, oh, it's traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Does that further incline you toward buying it? Are you neutral? Are you like, I think I'll just skip that?

32:52Andy Cross:For now, I might skip it, but if they have a U.S. listing that would be more accessible to me, it's definitely worth looking at.

32:58Loren Horst:Stock number six is Constellation Software, ticker symbol CSU. It's traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Company founded in 1995. Constellation Software specializes in acquiring and operating other people's software businesses. Basically, it's often looking for niche software companies that serve highly specific industries, like maybe a municipal government, and then over there a healthcare system, and there's a logistics provider, and they kind of buy them rather than building that software from scratch. And this company has been extremely successful. CEO Mark Leonard, one of those people who writes shareholder letters and people sit up and pay attention, a little bit Buffett-like.

33:37Loren Horst:There are a lot of Motley Fool fans, especially Motley Fool Canada fans, in and around Constellation Software. This is a company I don't really know that well. I just know of it. I bet Andy, our chief investment officer, knows a thing or two about this company. But turning back to Lauren, a renaissance man in his own right, do you know this company?

33:55Andy Cross:Not very well. I think I looked at it at one point. I believe, if I'm not mistaken, that it has a listing here in the U.S. on the pink sheets. And then it has its primary listing that might trade dozens of shares per day. It's a very thinly traded stock.

34:08Loren Horst:There you go. Well, we're going to go with the Canadian version of this. And I've even converted from Canadian dollars to the U.S. dollar. So when I ask you right now for the stated market cap range for Constellation Software traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol CSU, I've converted these dollars to U.S. dollar. Lauren, what is your stated market cap range?

34:30Andy Cross:Well, with apologies to Jim Gillies, my Monday morning show colleague, for potentially botching this year.

34:36Loren Horst:Absolutely loves this company. By the way, I think we all know this has been a monster winner historically. It has, yeah.

34:40Andy Cross:I'm going to say that its market cap in U.S. dollars is between$30 billion and$55 billion.

34:50Loren Horst:$30 billion to$55 billion. Now, Andy, do you know Jim Gillies? I do know Jim Gillies. I've known Jim Gillies for a long time. Do you like Jim Gillies? I do like Jim Gillies. That's the important question. Do you like the things that Jim Gillies likes?

35:03Andy Cross:Well, I like many of the things Jim Gillies likes.

35:05Loren Horst:I don't think I like everything Jim Gillies likes. Were you cheering for the Canadian Olympic hockey team's men's and women?

35:11Andy Cross:I was not cheering for the Canadian team, the hockey team.

35:14Loren Horst:I suspect Jim probably was. I think he was too. That would be one point. All right. Andy, players at home, Lauren said, $30 billion US to$55 billion US. Do you want to agree with that or disagree with that? I will disagree with that. Any savvier thinking you want to throw or just straight up numbers? I think because of where software stocks are in 2026,

35:35Andy Cross:I think it's had a little bit of a pullback, so I think it's a little bit smaller.

35:39Loren Horst:Well, I will tell you, this stock has definitely pulled back. You're right. A lot of software stocks have been hammered. This one, along with it, still a monster long-term winner, converted to U.S. dollars, $39.80 billion, solidly within Lauren's admittedly fairly generous range, 30 to 55. So yeah, 39-ish fits. Give yourself a plus one, players at home, if you agreed with Lauren. Lauren, you get a plus one as well. Guys, we are tied. It's three to three. Before moving on, yeah, Constellation Software. They've acquired over 800 software businesses since their founding. Again, many of these are tiny niche companies serving niche industries.

36:21Loren Horst:But founder Mark Leonard, Andy, he's not still the CEO.

36:25Andy Cross:No, he stepped down.

36:26Loren Horst:But famously media-averse guy, rarely appears in interviews. He's cranked out those annual shareholder letters for years, widely studied by investors. Andy, have you ever read one of them?

36:36Andy Cross:Oh, yes. They have a really good system in place at Constellation Software. Okay.

36:41Loren Horst:Three to three, let's move on to stock number seven. All right. Stock number seven, Andy Cross. Some companies have been around a long time and it's fun. Look at their corporate names in light of what they still do or maybe still don't do, but they've been around for a long time. In fact, let me provide you a short list. I'm going to ask you to score. This is not part of our game. This is just fun. Score these names in terms of their modern day relevance. So you're going to give a zero to 10, give a zero if it means their name no longer applies in any way to what they do. And of course, a 10 means, wow, yeah, that's still exactly what they're doing.

37:19Loren Horst:So you want to play with me briefly? Yeah, I'd love to. Great. International business machines. Four. Yeah. If that. Cloud services, consulting, AI, machines, and everything's international two now. Generous. We have a generous four. Yeah. Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing. Negative two. To their credit, they have kind of rebranded as 3M, but we know what that means and where it comes from. Doesn't seem to apply. How about General Electric? Three. Yeah, not really. One more though, because not everybody 50 plus years later got it wrong. How about applied materials? Oh, that's seven. They literally sell tools that apply materials to wafers during chip manufacturing.

38:03Loren Horst:That's about as literal, by the way, as corporate names get, applied materials. You know, they didn't have any internal employee renaming contest there or hire an outside firm to rebrand them as, I don't know, applied sure. Applied materials still working for them decades later. Well, stock number seven is one of these companies that has one of those long ago names, seems to apply still pretty well. Advanced Micro Devices, which still describes AMD's business extremely well. Company designs highly advanced semiconductor components, CPUs, GPUs, AI accelerators, etc. They're literally sophisticated, microscopic electronic devices at the heart of modern computing.

38:45Loren Horst:Andy Cross, this is a company. Do you own shares? I do not own shares. Nor do I. It's been a monster. It's been great. Yeah, it has been great. Speaking of female CEOs, this is another company with a great female CEO. One of the best. We'll talk about it in a sec. But what is your stated market cap range for advanced micro devices, ticker symbol AMD?

39:02Andy Cross:This is one that's actually done pretty well in the scorecard since we last added it. Awesome. So I will say$325 billion to$425 billion.

39:14Loren Horst:All right. $325 to$425 billion. Lauren, do you own any AMD in your portfolio?

39:21Andy Cross:Unfortunately, I do not.

39:22Loren Horst:Nor do I, as I think we've all stated. And yet this is a company that has well outperformed the markets over the last 10 years or so. Lisa Su, their CEO, by the way, she was named CEO of the year. I think it was Time Magazine. But unlike the Sports Illustrated curse where you don't want to be on the cover being celebrated for who you are, stock's still done pretty well since December of 2024 when she was on Time Magazine's cover as CEO of the year. Lauren, players at home, Andy said$325 billion to$425 billion. Do you want to say yes inside that range or no outside that range?

39:55Andy Cross:I'm going to go outside of the range. I think it's a little bit larger.

39:58Loren Horst:All right. Lauren has disagreed. Players at home, what do you think? All right. You said it. And amazing. Lauren gets another plus one for being on the wrong side with his guess, which is part, again, of the glory of the market cap game show. It's a little bit lower. It's$312.71 billion. dollars. Andy, you said 325 to 425. So just a little lower. Therefore, Lauren, you said outside the range. Didn't matter if you thought it was much bigger than that. No one's going to remember that. The score is now four to three. I was looking over, thinking about some more of these names where, is it funny? Does it still apply?

40:34Loren Horst:These are public companies. Brown Forman, you know, it sounds like a law firm, really. But this is the company behind Jack Daniels Whiskey. companies that have been around 50 plus years, Texas Instruments. On the one hand, yeah, TI. On the other hand, it kind of sounds like, I don't know, marching band equipment at the state fair. So it's fun to think about corporate names. This often plays into branding, sometimes into the power or not of corporate brands, which for me anyway, matters a lot as an investor. I'm counting Lauren having taken a surprising lead here midway through the second half.

41:06Loren Horst:Lauren, four, Andy, three. Let's move on to stock number eight. Lauren, when tax season rolls around and it's rolling around right now, are you the type who opens the envelope right away or the type who quietly just lets it sit maybe on the kitchen counter maybe for a few days?

41:23Andy Cross:I will pull out a blank manila folder. I will write at the top of it 2026 taxes, and then I will look at it for 100 days in a row without doing anything. Okay.

41:34Loren Horst:Do you pay your taxes?

41:36Andy Cross:I believe so, yeah. Okay, excellent. So day 101, you're showing up. As the deadline approaches, I get a little bit more urgency. Yeah, yeah.

41:44Loren Horst:As a fellow Manila folder person, though, much credit. Awesome. A good file cabinet. Do you have a label maker? I do, yeah. I do, too. I think most people don't. I agree. I love my label maker. Ever since reading Getting Things Done by David Allen, who I've had on this podcast, the organization thinking guru, David Allen, I have had a label maker and I think it's really helpful. It makes you feel really professional as you, you don't just write taxes 2026 up top, right? You're printing a label.

42:12Andy Cross:I should perhaps, yeah, I write it down. But I think the more important thing is to get really excited about, you know, taking that W-2 envelope in the mail, putting it right into that folder, knowing it's in its right place and then still not looking at it for the next several weeks.

42:25Loren Horst:Well, for a long time, the ritual for millions of Americans was a shoebox of receipts, calculator maybe, maybe a professional accountant. And then software came along that turned tax preparation into something you could do yourself, maybe at your kitchen table. Lauren, I think we talked about this when you were last on the show. You like quiet compounders, steady, sometimes boring businesses that just keep delivering year after year. I'm curious, do you probably happen to know what stock we're talking about?

42:54Andy Cross:I would guess we're talking about Intuit.

42:56Loren Horst:Very nice. Ticker symbol INTU. That is stock number eight. Are you a customer, TurboTax?

43:02Andy Cross:I have been for about a decade now. Yeah.

43:05Loren Horst:All right. What is your stated market cap range for Intuit, ticker symbol INTU?

43:09Andy Cross:I think this is a really strong business and I feel like the underlying business has succeeded, but it is a software stock. And the question is, I have this idea of how much maybe it was worth in the past in my mind, and I'm not quite sure what it is today, but I'm going to throw out a number. That is$85 billion to$128 billion.

43:32Loren Horst:$85 billion to$128 billion. By the way, before I ask you, Andy, your thoughts on what Lauren just said, I want to give Lauren a shout out because I feel like he's just a great game show contestant. You're supposed to articulate and state what you're thinking. It makes it more interesting for the fans at home. Lauren, have you appeared on any television game shows?

43:49Andy Cross:No, I like to play at home on the couch, low stakes. That's the best way to do it.

43:53Loren Horst:And are you also sitting on the couch articulating, vocalizing your thoughts before giving your final answer?

43:58Andy Cross:To the dismay of my wife and my family, yes.

44:01Loren Horst:Well, obviously the whole world listens to this podcast. Therefore, we clearly have game show producers, talent hunters who are listening. And I think we got a ringer here. I think Lauren Hurst is the very model of a modern game show contestant. Andy, Lauren, who does, by the way, I want to be very clear on does pay his taxes every year. And I believe that Lauren Hurst is a great American. And Lauren, you have my vote if you ever want to run for office in the DMV.

44:27Andy Cross:I'll take that into consideration. Excellent.

44:28Loren Horst:So you got me on the team. He said$85 billion to$127 billion. I think he said billion. Your thoughts about Intuit as a software stock, maybe before you give your final answer here.

44:39Andy Cross:I'm pretty sure Intuit is one of the worst performers of the S &P 500 this year.

44:45Loren Horst:It's gotten pounded. And you're right. Software, right? Why? Why? For casual listeners who are just kind of obliquely following the markets. What's happening?

44:52Andy Cross:Well, just thinking about as artificial intelligence, AI technology comes more into the mainstream, will users, both corporate and individuals, find alternatives with AI chatbots than having to pay expensive software licenses?

45:08Loren Horst:And we're just a game show. So we're going to leave that rhetorical. But thank you, Andy. And yeah, this is a stock I picked. I was just checking. It's been around 13 years ago. It's It's been a winner. We'll talk about that in a sec. Been knocked down recently. Andy, Lauren said$85 billion to$127 billion. Players at home, Andy Cross, do you want to agree or disagree?

45:27Andy Cross:That's a very strong guess because I was thinking around there, but then was it a little bit higher? But you know what? I'm going to go with Lauren.

45:34Loren Horst:I'm going to agree with his range. And so, players at home, did you agree? And if you did, give yourself a plus one because it seems like these guys are going to keep tying it up no matter what happens. Andy, plus one, you were right to agree with Lauren's range. In fact, at about 3 p.m. today, Tuesday, March 3rd, its market cap was$120.86 billion. And yeah, that's inside Lauren's range. I mentioned I picked this stock for Stock Advisor,$52.96, somewhere 13 years ago. Yeah, today it's around$420. So it's been a tremendous long-term performer, though notably, it's been almost cut in half just the past six months.

46:16Loren Horst:Some investors believe that turbulence reflects broader questions of the kind that Andy just rhetorically asked, like, I don't know, will AI pay all of our taxes for us? Those kinds of questions, no doubt affecting Intuit, a company which, by the way, has expanded well beyond just TurboTax and the original QuickBooks and Quicken for users like me back in the day who got started with this whole new computers. You know, these things actually, you can type in your expenses and see you can be your own accountant. Have you seen this, honey? I remember saying to my wife, Margaret, in the late 1980s.

46:48Loren Horst:Do you have the floppy disk? Definitely. I was upgrading. Scott Cook, founder of Quicken, somebody who came to Fool HQ once, got to know him. It's a wonderful company. These days, they also own Credit Karma. They own MailChimp. So this is a more diversified company than just TurboTax. Anyway, enough about Intuit. Let's move on to stock number nine. These guys are tied four to four. I do have a tiebreaker stock in case you're going to split again. So we'll see if it goes to 11 this week or not. Let me turn back to Andy Cross, stock number nine. Andy, does the Cross family support one or more pets at home?

47:24Loren Horst:We do support more than one as of recently, just last year. Do you have an announcement you'd like to make?

47:29Andy Cross:Well, we adopted a cat. There was a stray cat roaming the neighborhood and we took it in.

47:34Loren Horst:Name? Leo. Leo. That's a pretty awesome name for a cat. You didn't name it after a food? We did not. No, we had named it after a flower. the dog is a posy. And then Leo, the kids just tapped at Leo. First cat for the cross family? First cat for the cross family. No allergies? No allergies. Excellent. Sounds like Leo joins somebody else who was already in the house. Yes, a golden retriever, posy. And they're getting along. Fabulously. It's a reminder. You don't need me to tell you this, dear listener, but it's been happening now over the last couple of decades. Pets increasingly becoming our family members, I would say not just in the United States, but probably worldwide.

48:08Loren Horst:And when that happens, Spending. Changes. Diagnostics improve. Expectations rise. When you think about that shift in how people treat their pets, Andy, what kinds of businesses tend to benefit the most? Well, pharmaceuticals is one. Stock number nine is IDEX Laboratories, ticker symbol IDXX. It was founded in 1983, headquartered in Westbrook, Maine. Yeah, there aren't that many public companies headquartered in Maine. IDEX Labs is one of them. And yes, this is a leading developer of diagnostic tests, software, laboratory services used by vets around the world. I don't think this will affect your choice, but fun fact, IDEX originally focused on agricultural testing for livestock before expanding into companion animal diagnostics, which has been big for IDEX Labs.

48:59Loren Horst:Andy Cross, what is your stated market cap range for IDEX Laboratories, ticker symbol IDXX?

49:05Andy Cross:I will say between$32 billion and$50 billion.

49:11Loren Horst:$32 billion and$50 billion. Lauren, any creatures beyond you and your wife in the Hearst household?

49:18Andy Cross:We are allergic to most things, but we do have a robot vacuum with googly eyes on it, so that kind of feels like a pet.

49:25Loren Horst:And have you named it?

49:26Andy Cross:Agidor Spartacus, because it's bad with shoes.

49:28Loren Horst:Nice. Have you ever run any diagnostics on Agidor?

49:32Andy Cross:I haven't yet, no. Okay, yeah. Just clean out the filter every once in a while. Yeah, it's not too bad. Cheaper to maintain.

49:38Loren Horst:Very. Googly eyes, just the traditional white eyes with the dark pupils?

49:42Andy Cross:Yeah, that bounce around whenever it moves, of course.

49:44Loren Horst:Ever replace the googly eyes or just sticking with the originals?

49:47Andy Cross:The originals until they fall off and then it's funnier.

49:50Loren Horst:Well, then it vacuums it up.

49:52Andy Cross:Oh, yeah. That would be true.

49:54Loren Horst:Kind of a dark moment. Yeah, very dark. Exactly. All right, Lauren, players at home. Andy said$32 billion to$50 billion. I will remind you, do you need this reminder? No. You guys are tied. $32 billion to$50 billion. Lauren, are you feeling right now that you're wanting to agree, which means you're going to disagree, or the reverse? Not to confuse the matter, but you did this to me earlier in our show.

50:16Andy Cross:I did this to myself earlier in the show. True that. So I think$50 billion is too high, and it's a round number, so it's a bit of a throwaway. So I'm really thinking closely about that$32 billion and whether it's potentially above or below it, which means that it's probably worth more than$50 billion in the end. But I am going to say, I feel like I keep going outside of the range. But again, I think I'm going to go outside of the range here.

50:38Loren Horst:He said outside the range. What do you say at home? Okay, you said it. 50.77 billion. Outside the range and on the wrong side again. And Lauren, you were making a beautiful habit of this.

50:54Andy Cross:I will chalk that up to luck. I would love for it to be talent, but I don't know how to take advantage of it yet.

50:59Loren Horst:Andy, a pretty good range.

51:00Andy Cross:I mean, 32 to 50 is 50.77. Another one. This is one of those compounding all-stars. They also have like a water purification business. But anyway. Nice. But I just thought the stock has kind of pulled back over the last few months.

51:14Loren Horst:And I just thought it was a little bit smaller than 50 billion. I mean, so close. Like we are using decimals on this week's show. But then again, it is March Market Cap Madness. And these are all-stars I'm working with. Andy Cross, six and one. Lauren, I think I'm right about this. You have never lost a market cap game show.

51:30Andy Cross:This is my second appearance. I'm 1-0 so far. I might have to go to the four corners offense very quickly here.

51:37Loren Horst:This is really compelling. So we have someone who's never lost, who's now up 5-4 over somebody who is a world champion and world runner-up last year. No pressure at all, Andy Cross, as we move to stock number 10. I will just mention, by the way, 10-bagger, the stock for Motley Fool Stock Advisor members over the last 11 years. So yes, it has been a quiet compounder. And, you know, sometimes investing doesn't need to be that much more complicated than asking, what are the trends? What probably is going to keep going for a long time? And the idea that our pets are not just our friends, but our family members.

52:10Loren Horst:I mean, if you're running a business in and around that ecosystem, you've been a beneficiary. And certainly IDEX Labs has been such a winner based in the state of Maine. All right, let's move to stock number 10. And we turn to Lauren Hurst for his range before I name the stock or ask you the range. Lauren, I have an important question for you. When you order food delivery these days, what's the first thing that you check? The menu or the delivery fee?

52:38Andy Cross:The delivery fee at this point. And why is that? What's the quote that your brother Tom always says that DoorDash is the best way to pay$28 for an$8 burger?

52:50Loren Horst:Great line. I mean, it is substantial. And yet it feels as if we, at least here in America, I won't speak for every other country, seems like we're willing to do that. We're willing to stay at home, especially during the winter, maybe, and pay somebody more to deliver our food than the food itself sometimes costs. You know, the economics of delivery are tricky. And that's why the potential emergence of robots to do that last mile of the delivery becomes possibly compelling. not just here in 2026 necessarily. I haven't seen any of Serve Robotics robots out there yet, but maybe 2027, 2030. We'll see how things are being delivered 10 years from now.

53:34Loren Horst:We'll see whether we're still paying up so much to get that$8 burger. All right. The company stock number 10 is Serve Robotics, ticker symbol S-E-R-V. By the way, originally spun out of Uber's Advanced Technologies Group. This is the autonomous sidewalk delivery robot company transporting food, small packages over short distances in dense urban areas, ticker symbol S-E-R-V. And stock number 10, if you've been paying careful attention, is inevitably by the process of elimination, a throwdown. That's right. You probably already figured that out by now. You know the drill, fools. Pencils out. Andy and Lauren will now each write down their best market cap range for Serv Robotics, ticker symbol SERV.

54:26Loren Horst:And once they reveal their ranges, all you do at home is say Andy or Lauren, and I think you remember how this is scored, but if they both happen to be correct, remember the tighter range wins, and yeah, if they both miss, they may have done that earlier in the show. I can't quite remember at this point, but if they both miss, whoever gets more proximate with his nearest parameter gets the point. But again, players at home, as I now turn back to Lauren Hurst, all you have to do is say the correct name and get a point. Lauren, now turning back to you. By the way, have you had a little robot knock at your door and drop you off your burger?

55:02Andy Cross:I haven't. I want to say that Sir Robotics operates in Los Angeles, if I'm not mistaken.

55:08Loren Horst:It did start there, pretty sure.

55:10Andy Cross:And I'm not sure where, if it has progressed onto the East Coast yet. So I haven't experienced it. I have looked into the company very briefly. And so that is why my estimate for the total market cap of this company, and let me be very specific on the pronunciation here, is$350 to$650 million.

55:30Loren Horst:All right. $350 million to$650 million. A small to micro cap company. Andy Cross, What range have you written down? I wrote down$3 to$6 billion. $3 billion to$6 billion. So players at home, there's quite a disparity between those ranges. Your job is to say either Lauren, who said$350 to$650 billion, or Andy, who just said$3 billion to$6 billion. Serve Robotics market cap at approximately 3 p.m. on Tuesday, March the 3rd, was$729.72 million. a small to micro cap company slightly exceeding Lauren's range and yet Lauren is closest by far really you got it, this is a very small company and Lauren Hurst, give yourself a plus one you have just advanced in March market cap madness

56:23Andy Cross:woohoo

56:26Loren Horst:Andy, this one was close now anytime you lose which is almost never you're being beaten by a member of the team that you are helping coach push support and unleash for Motley Fool member benefit. Throughout the game, whether you got it right or wrong, I saw you knuckle knocking with Lauren throughout. This is what I want from my leaders.

56:47Andy Cross:Well, that's nice of you to say. Lauren's an exceptional analyst and investor. And so it's not a surprise that he took me down. I am a little disappointed in my serve robotics. I just thought that it had gotten at least above a billion. So I'm surprised that it is below a billion dollars in market.

57:03Loren Horst:As I used to say with Matt Argersinger, as we crafted this game together, an earlier version, quite a bit different than where we are today. But we used to say, you know, Matt, if you thought it was much bigger than it actually is, you might want to put that one on your watch list. Because in your mind, this thing is like, you know, three, four, five billion. And if it's starting around 700 million, you might have a seven bagger in your pocket before you know it. If in fact, the world gets ready for little robots going back and forth on blocks in dense urban areas. Andy, do you think within the next few years, I'm not going to hold you to this because I'm going to forget I asked on a podcast that's recorded and will live forever.

57:41Loren Horst:Andy, do you expect to have a robot deliver you food in the next five to seven years? 100%. Nice. Maybe the five to seven days. Next five to seven days? Maybe. Possibly.

57:53Andy Cross:The way things are moving. Yes, absolutely.

57:55Loren Horst:Well, and if so, Serv Robotics would probably have a bigger market cap if it were that imminent. But it does remain a microcap company. It's certainly an interesting company. Part of what I love about the stock market is it makes you in touch with the world. I guess we could all just index it and just mail it in. But most of my friends who index don't really follow what's happening with technology, culture, society. I don't want to say they have their heads in the sand, but some do and don't really care and notice things like Serv Robotics. Robotics, or yeah, they aren't the sort of people who reach forward into that seat pocket and pull out that car and see what airplane they're flying on.

58:29Loren Horst:Andy, you were looking strange. You were looking askance at Lauren about something.

58:33Andy Cross:Well, there is a connection here between Lauren's in-house pet, the vacuum.

58:38Loren Horst:Yeah, the unnameable vacuum cleaner.

58:40Andy Cross:And the Serv Robotics robots. What is that? And that is the googly eyes. They have the eyes on front of the robots. Just to give it a little bit of a, you know, a little feel to it when it runs around on the neighborhood streets and sidewalks. That is cool. If it's going to block traffic, it might as well make you laugh at it.

58:59Loren Horst:Very well said. Well, I want to thank you both. The final accounting then is this, Lauren Hurst 6, Andy Cross 4. But, you know, Lauren and Andy and I, no, we're not playing this game for each other. We're playing for you. How did you score, dear listener? Dear listener at home, we hope that you outscored all of us. The purpose of the Market Cap Game Show is to make more popular. I'm never going to say as popular as Jeopardy, but to make more popular market caps. The real value of stocks on the market that most people don't understand, except that, well, now you do understand because you just listened to us for an hour, and I hope you scored at least a few points this week and maybe beat one or both of our competitors.

59:42Loren Horst:Andy and Lauren, you both distinguish yourselves once again. You've helped make the world a bit smarter, happier, and richer. And Lauren, see you in two weeks. Next week is the other half of our March Market Cap Madness Final Four bracket. World champion Emily Flippen taking on Bill Barker. Before we go, a last line from you, Andy.

1:00:04Andy Cross:Well, it was nice to have a little bit of winning streak here, and that has ended. So, hey, congratulations, Lauren. Lauren, you are certainly worthy of going against whoever comes out in the finals.

1:00:15Loren Horst:Any predictions? Hey, he beat me. I'm going to go with Lauren. Stick with the winner here. Lauren carries it through. Excellent. Lauren, you just got a validation from our chief investing officer, but your final thought here as we close it out this week.

1:00:26Andy Cross:Yeah, I just want to thank Andy for a well-fought battle. I mean, this is in an audible medium, so you can't see just how much he made me sweat throughout the second half of the game there. But I do want to just throw out a quick shout out to one of our newest members of The Motley Fool. I appreciate all of our members, but there's one that I just want to give a little bit of extra attention to. And that is happy birthday, Mom.

1:00:49Loren Horst:That is awesome. Thank you, guys. Thanks, fools. Everywhere. Hi, Mom. Fool on.

1:00:56Andy Cross:As always, people on this program may have interest in the stocks they talk about. And The Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against. So don't buy or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. Learn more about Rule Breaker Investing at rbi.fool.com.