2026 March Market Cap Madness Championship: Loren v. Emily

22:42Loren Horst:There was no cash component to the settlement. So there was some admission on the part of the company that it will open things up and be a little bit more sharing oriented. But, I mean, it's in favor of shareholders here. There was no ding. There was no hit to the balance sheet for Live Nation Entertainment, which continues to be, to me anyway, a company that passes my cola test, which means if they're the Coca-Cola, I can't find Pepsi in this industry. And usually that leads us to some pretty good winners. It certainly does. And I wish I had remembered not only that dominating monopoly, but also the fact that Live Nation owns a lot of these venues themselves.

23:19and remembering what a strong performer it was, the monopoly it has over ticket sales, and the venue ownership. I'm now looking back on that market cap range and thinking to myself, gosh, no way I could have thought it was that small.

23:31Loren Horst:It is true, Lauren. They own the venues. They then work with the acts themselves, and they're selling the tickets to the acts in their venues. It is a very strong position, Live Nation Entertainment, partly through buying Ticketmaster, has. And let me just go back to that point you made, David. I'm really familiar with companies, you know, if there's a lawsuit, if there's a settlement, maybe there's a big fine, but there's no admission of guilt. Are you saying they actually were able to flip that successfully and say, like, oops, are bad, but the penalty is nothing? Well, I'm not a lawyer and I don't play one on TV.

24:03Loren Horst:And I admit I haven't deeply looked into this other than I hope for Rule Breakers members, this company continues to be a winner. And I would also say if people feel like ticket prices are just crazy, then don't buy them. That will send a message to Live Nation or the venues or the performers themselves. The way that capitalism works is unless somebody is twisting your arm to buy something, which I hope they're not, it's your choice if you want to pay that or not. Let's move on to stock number five. Things are heating up. Let me turn now back to Lauren. Lauren, with a fair amount of the white-collar working world, especially those with digital jobs these days, having made at least some transition toward remote or virtual work, have you ever walked into a coffee shop these days and seen a laptop or two?

24:50Loren Horst:Every once in a while, yeah. But I'm one of those people working from home. And if my coffee shop is 12 steps away, that's where I'm going to end up going every day. Meaning that your coffee shop is your own home. Is my curate get home. Yes, I understand. So you're not part of the, what I would say, the growing army of people with laptops in large coffee venues. You're not one of those people. No, I'm one of those people that as soon as The Motley Fool started going remote in 2020, I was one of those people where I got a lot of nice shirts and a lot of nice sweatpants as well. I'm not going to go outside if I don't need to.

25:24Loren Horst:Well, we are now in a third party studio here at Clean Cuts in Washington, D.C. So we all dressed up to come here today. No pajamas. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. No, you're both looking great. Well, stock number five is Starbucks Corporation, ticker symbol SBUX. Starbucks, of course, operates one of the world's most recognizable coffeehouse chains, serving millions of customers daily while also functioning as what it famously calls the third place between home and work, except that I think it's become the second place because it's, for a lot of people, it is work today. Sometimes it feels like half the room when I walk into a coffee venue is laptops.

26:05Loren Horst:Lauren Hurst, what is your stated market cap range for Starbucks Corporation, ticker symbol SBUX? I'm going to go with 93 to 118 billion. 93 billion to 118 billion. Before I turn to Emily, I noticed that you didn't just go with round numbers there, Lauren. There seems some real intent, a three and an eight. I want Emily to have to guess whether I'm extremely confident in this answer or if I'm just plucking them at random. The game outside the game, the game inside the game, the meta game. Emily, have you recently taken a laptop to a coffee venue of any brand? I do. I don't go to Starbucks, though.

26:46I much prefer my Wawa coffee, but I will occasionally hit up a Panera. I find that I can loiter at Panera for an unusually long amount of time and attract at least amount of attention. All right.

26:57Loren Horst:Lauren said$93 billion to$118 billion players at home. And Emily Flippen, do you find yourself wanting to agree or disagree with that range? The disagreeing has been winning a lot of points this game. I will say that. But I also know some facts about Lauren. One is he is currently studying and going through the CFA program. So this is somebody who likely at least reviewed some market caps for coming on the show today and also works on the Stock Advisor team where Starbucks is a recommendation. Now, it's been a long time since we've spent time looking at Starbucks. It's been a comparative underperformer for the last few years.

27:37Understandably so. There's been a big change of kind of shifting consumption styles away from that third place. So maybe he's not as confident in that range. but I think he is and I think he's trying to throw me off the game so I'm going to agree.

27:50Loren Horst:All right you're going to agree. Players at home Emily agreed what do you do? Thank you and if you agreed give yourself a plus one because Lauren did give a good range and Emily was right to lean in for the reasons she just gave and say I agree. Starbucks's market cap is$111.44 billion dollars which is solidly inside Lauren's 93 to 118 billion dollar range. Lauren you know your Starbucks. I do. And to be clear, I'm not traveling out into the world to go to Starbucks, but I am still drinking it every day. They do have, you know, they're in grocery stores. They have a distribution agreement with Pepsi.

28:26Loren Horst:So like in one form or another, I am still getting my Starbucks. And it is worth pointing out that Starbucks has been experimenting with store redesigns in light of what this phenomenon that I'm talking about, pickup only locations in some cases. So instead of being de facto co-working spaces, Starbucks has been fighting back a little bit more so, I would agree, than Panera, Emily, which I recently visited. And I saw some people like Emily with their laptops looked like they were camping out there. Oh, yes. And I will say, you know, the Panera, I think, camping experience for coffee, very different than the Starbucks experience.

29:00Starbucks has, I think, moved a little higher end, which is good for them. They need to be working on their rebrand. The physical coffee cups, I think when you come and you sit down, that is a big part of that experience. I think it was smart for their new CEO to move in that direction.

29:12Loren Horst:Well said. Well, we're about to move to halftime. Before we do, I do want to mention that Starbucks may be most famous for being the stock that Tom and I named as our pick for Lisa Ling back in the day on the ABC TV show, The View. Famously, I opened my book Rule Breaker Investing with that story. I use words like famously here somewhat loosely. It's debatable. Anyway, Starbucks was at$2.63 when we picked it in 1998 on The View. It was at$91.25, making it a 34 bagger when my book went to press, and today it's now over 98. So it's a 36 bagger. Shout out to Lisa Ling. Let's go to halftime. All right.

29:52Loren Horst:By prior consent, you both have brought a joke to entertain our listeners at halftime. In keeping with tradition, Emily, you are winning right now, four to one. Therefore, you shall be telling your joke first. And I think we're all pleased by that because to be honest, I think we know coming into this that my joke is probably going to be worse than Lauren's. But David, I do think I'm taking a lesson from from last week's Market Cap Games. I've learned a little bit about what types of jokes you like. So I have a classic joke prepared for today. Wonderful. OK, a man applies for a job. The interviewer says, hey, we're looking for somebody responsible for this position.

30:27The man says, hey, I'm your guy. The interviewer says, What makes you say that? The man says, at my last job, whenever anything went wrong, they said I was responsible.

30:37Loren Horst:Yeah, that works for me. Sure. There we go. Also, plus one for wearing some green on St. Patrick's Day, Emily, as well. Thank you. I actually did not realize it was St. Patrick's Day when I put this on today. But you're now the second person to tell me that, and I feel very pleased with myself. Well done. Lauren, I'm not saying you need to top Emily's joke. I mean, there's probably a little bit of edge there down four to one. There's some pressure maybe to feel like you need to start topping Emily. Do you want to try that with your joke? I certainly can try. I know I have a big deficit to come up with here.

31:07Loren Horst:So if I'm remembered as the funny one, that's still a win for me. But I will say hopefully I get some bonus points because this is a St. Patrick's Day themed joke. Plus one already. Here we go. Why is Ireland the richest country in the world? Why is Ireland the richest country in the world? because its capital is always Dublin. Well done. Well, that works for me. I mean, it's going with the straight up pun line, which arguably might be a sign of the use of a large language model to come up with that joke. I did Google it, and it looked like it was written on a message board thread in 1996. It was solid, though.

31:46Loren Horst:Its capital is always Dublin. The old adage goes, it isn't what you say, it's how you say it. Because to truly make an impact, you set the example, take the lead, and adapt to whatever comes your way. And when you're that driven, you drive an equally determined vehicle, the Range Rover Sport. Blending power, poise, and performance, the Range Rover Sport delivers a dynamic sporting personality with elegance and agility for a truly instinctive drive. Its distinctly British design and assertive stance hint at refined performance the moment you see it. Inside, modern luxury meets thoughtful innovation.

32:32Loren Horst:The cabin air purification system works alongside active noise cancellation to create new levels of comfort and control. And with Terrain Response 2 and 7 Terrain Modes, the vehicle fine-tunes itself for the road ahead. Created with a choice of powerful engines, including a plug-in hybrid with an estimated range of 53 miles, the Range Rover Sport lets raw capability and precision shine, free from unnecessary detail. Build your Range Rover Sport at rangerover.com slash US slash sport. That's rangerover.com slash US slash sport. Well, before we move on to stock number six, I want to just remind you March is madness and not just on this game show.

33:26Loren Horst:Historically, our March mailbag runs a little light, which means something wonderful for you. Your odds being featured next week go way up. Our email address is rbi at fool.com. You can also tweet us on Twitter X at at RBI podcast. So, you know, you've probably been thinking maybe I'll write David someday. Well, this is someday. Send me your questions, your investing stories, your wins, your mistakes, your frameworks, your family traditions, your language gripes. All are welcome. The only catch is you have to actually hit send. So take a minute. Drop me a note. Help me make next week's March mailbag one worth remembering.

34:04Loren Horst:Again, our email address, rbi at fool.com. Let's move on to stock number six. Emily, how many companies can you think of with single letter ticker symbols? And let me try a few on you. First one that comes to mind is Unity Software, which is just U. Good one. How about F? Ford. Good. How about T? T-Mobile. Close. AT &T. Sorry. T-M-U-S is T-Mobile for the record. I do know that one. No worries. How about one more? This is not the quiz, by the way. No points are being awarded here. How about V? Visa. Well done. I mean, in the end, there are only 26 possibilities. And as we'll talk about in a bit, there are a few that remain unclaimed.

34:47Loren Horst:But when a company has a single letter ticker, it's either probably a pretty old company or a pretty big company or maybe just very fortunate to have grabbed one early. Emily, stock number six is Hyatt Hotels Corporation, ticker symbol H. You got it. Hyatt is a global hospitality company operating hotels, resorts, and luxury brands around the world. Hyatt was founded, by the way, 1957. Entrepreneur Jay Pritzker purchased the original Hyatt House Motel near Los Angeles International Airport. Emily Flippen, what is your stated market cap range for Hyatt Hotels Corporation, ticker symbol H? I always like to, as I said in the previous show, David, compare companies I don't know, like Hyatt, versus ones that I do, like Marriott or Airbnb.

35:42But something tells me Hyatt is much smaller, given the properties that I know both of those companies own. So I'm going to give you a range of$11 billion to$15 billion.

35:52Loren Horst:$11 billion to$15 billion. Lauren, have you recently or ever stayed at a Hyatt? I would have to guess I've stayed at some point. I've been to enough weddings. Yes. But yeah, Marriott's my preferred brand. Okay. You know, it's funny. I spoke to a group of undergraduates yesterday in a Hyatt Regency in downtown Washington, D.C. So even if you didn't stay there, you've probably walked through one or one of its properties in recent years. Lauren, Emily said$11 billion to$15 billion. Players at Home, Lauren Hurst, what are you thinking? Well, when Emily started out trying to do some comparison, that's where my mind went as well.

36:29Loren Horst:I'm thinking that Marriott might be closer to 70 or 80 billion. So the question is, how many times larger, if assuming that I'm even close on that assumption, how many times larger is Marriott than Hyatt? And this is a tight range. And that could signal that Emily knows it really well. But I'm going to go outside. I'm going to disagree. And I understand at this point I'm up against the wall here. So I'm really hoping disagree is the way to go. All right. Players at home. Lauren has disagreed. What do you do? 11 billion to 15 billion Hyatt. And I'm sorry to say for Lauren, he should have agreed.

37:04Loren Horst:Players at home, I hope you agreed. Emily, I'm thinking, Emily, you were kind of picking numbers out of the air. You're not regularly looking at Hyatt, or are you? No, the guilt, the guilt for this point is palpable on my part. I figured it was substantially smaller than Marriott, which I agree with Lauren. I know it's somewhere up closer to$100 billion. I knew it was mostly a domestic brand. So I just cut. I gave a narrow range, hoping that Lauren would think that I knew it better than I was, hoping that I could get him to agree with me. So this feels, again, like a dirty point. Well, you say so, but that was pretty good.

37:39Loren Horst:Hyatt is tipping the scales at$14.01 billion, basically a$14 billion operation inside Emily's range of 11 to 15. Emily now has a commanding lead of 5 to 1, but the game is still on, Lauren. This will be an epic comeback. Before we move to stock number 7, let's just fixate again briefly on single-letter ticker symbol companies. I admit I haven't gone all the way through all 26 letters, but several do come to mind for unclaimed ticker symbols. And I'm thinking, team, if I'm a new company coming public these days and no one's using I, I don't think anyone's using I, no one's using K, I think also N people, investor relations officers, CFOs, CEOs.

38:25Loren Horst:They're right there. They're right there. You should pick up these single letter ticker symbols and go big with your company if you believe in what you're doing. Right, Lauren? Yeah, it's like a web domain. Like if I can get why.com, why wouldn't I? You're absolutely right. This is basically ticker squatting. And, you know, you could later sell off your ticker symbols to others if you could somehow find a platform like GoDaddy that I don't think exists for the New York Stock Exchange. But that's for another day. OK, let's move on now to stock number seven. Lauren, we were just talking about Hyatt.

38:56Loren Horst:So let's stay right there for a moment. When you think about your own travel habits, how do you approach hotels these days? I'm one of those individuals where if I'm going on a really extended vacation, I might want to have an Airbnb in the middle. Like if I'm visiting a few nearby cities, if I have an Airbnb in the middle that I can do laundry and take less luggage, that's nice on the way there. But I am a, I think first and foremost, I'm a hotel person. It's just a nicer experience. I know exactly what I'm going to get from it. Yeah, and the big hotel companies have built entire ecosystems around how we travel.

39:31Loren Horst:They've got like loyalty programs, tiers, points, upgrades. There's that great Modern Family episode some of you may have seen or remember where is it Jay, the dad, the wealthy dad? And he checks in the hotel and they're on the gold level. And then it's like the family gets in the elevator and they're ready to hit the gold button. And all of a sudden, somebody leans over and taps the platinum button above the gold button. And he starts going, wait, there's another level. And by the end of the 30-minute episode, he's gotten to like triple platinum. And it's all completely ridiculous. But in some ways, it's making light of this company and its operations.

40:06Loren Horst:Stock number seven is Marriott International, ticker symbol M-A-R. Now, you're right to be laughing because I randomize which stocks are coming every single show. And we just talked a lot about Marriott in light of Hyatt. And yet here it is, stock number seven. Marriott, one of the largest hotel companies in the world. It operates a wide portfolio of brands across luxury, premium and select service categories. As we heard last week, it's a company that's been holding its own quite well. Thank you. In the ongoing debate with Airbnb, Emily, you were on the show last week. You mentioned Marriott briefly.

40:44Loren Horst:This, though, friends, is a throwdown.

40:50Loren Horst:So that's right, throwdown time. Pencils out, fools. Lauren and Emily will now each write down their respective best market cap range for Marriott International, ticker symbol MAR. And once they share their ranges, players at home, your job is just to pick the contestant you think made the better guess. You simply say Lauren or Emily, and if you're right, you score a point. And as they think of their guesses a bit more on how this works, if only one of them gets the market cap range right, Well, of course, that correct guess wins the point. But what if both are right? Well, in that case, the contestant with the tighter range takes the point.

41:27Loren Horst:And what if they're both wrong? I can't even remember that ever happening on this show. But supposing it did, if they both missed, then we measure proximity. Whose ever nearest parameter is closest to the true market cap gets the point. So we do this twice every show. This is throwdown number one. Let's do it. stock seven Marriott. I'm now going to turn back to you, Emily, first. Emily, you are up five to one. We were just talking about the stock last week. Not that you're expected to remember last week. I have problems sometimes just remembering yesterday. But let me ask you to reveal what you've written down on your post-it note.

42:04So I remember last week, we quite literally searched up the market cap of Marriott because we were comparing it to Airbnb, which is one of the the companies on our game show. And I have a vague recollection of where that market cap was. I'm not quite sure how it's changed in the course of the past week. I have an idea that Lauren has an idea where this market cap is based off the conversation we just had. So now this is the mind game of how much has this changed in a week? How tight is Lauren's range going to be? So this is a stressful situation. This is what you wrote down though.

42:36Loren Horst:This is what you wrote down. I'm curious. I wrote down 86 to 93 billion. 86 to 93 billion. Lauren Hurst, what did you write down on your post-it note for Marriott International? I'm trying to remember if I threw out a number just a few minutes ago, but I wrote down 72 to 81 billion. 72 billion to 81 billion. So players at home, Emily said 86 to 93. Lauren said 72 to 81. Remember, these fools are good at this game. They know what they're doing. Lauren kind of needs this to remain relevant for the last few questions. So players at home, on three, you're going to say Lauren, if you think he got it right.

43:16Loren Horst:Emily, if you think she got it right. Three, two, one. And if you said Emily, give yourself a plus one. I mean, there is some recency bias here that you're benefiting from. Of course, I'm sure Lauren did listen to last week's show, so I'm sure it's all present in his mind as well. Marriott International's market cap,$87.06 billion. just inside Emily's range of 86 to 93. And Lauren, you weren't far off, but the problem is with the World Championship, close but no cigar. Yeah, at this point, you got to make your free throws. All right, very much in keeping with March Madness. You know, I appreciate that.

43:52Loren Horst:By the way, the Marriott story started in 1927 here in this city that we're broadcasting from today, Washington, D.C. Jay Willard Marriott opens a small A &W root beer stand with his wife, Alice. They expanded into a chain of hot shops. Some older hands and gray heads in the room may remember hot shops, P-P-E-S. Those were restaurants before eventually the company moved into lodging. And the first Marriott Hotel, by the way, opened in 1957. This company owns a lot of different hotel chains. Ritz-Carlton, The W, Sheraton, Westin, Courtyard by Marriott, Residence Inn. The list goes on. In fact, dozens of brands that most of us, me included, rarely recognize are just all rolled up under the same company.

44:41Loren Horst:So that's in part why Marriott is about six times the size of Hyatt Hotels Corporation. Emily, last week we were talking about how similar the market caps between Marriott and Airbnb are. And I actually thought Marriott was even larger. I remember thinking to myself it was closer to$100 billion. But I guess the market caps of Airbnb and Marriott have actually converged a bit over the course of the past year. closer than I thought. So I'm happy that it was still within my range. My range was still a little on the high side, though. So I'm still giving Marriott a bit more credit here. And for the record, before we move on, Marriott is right around$85 billion and Airbnb these days is$75 billion.

45:19Loren Horst:They're both pretty comparable, totally different models. And one started much more recently than 1927. OK, let's move on to stock number eight. Emily, when people talk about artificial intelligence today. They tend to focus on the models, chat, GBT, large language models, all of that. By the way, how actively do you use AI? Every single day. It's an important part of our mandate here at The Fool. And I am still, I consider myself very much in the learning phase of AI, but I have this inherent desire to fight against change. I think it's natural, it's human in all of us. And I am now fighting against my fight against change.

45:58And in order to do that, I am forcing myself to embrace the change and embrace AI. And I've learned a lot of the course of the past year. Excellent.

46:03Loren Horst:How about a tip, maybe a go to prompt that you use or a use of AI that we all, our listeners, can learn from you? Oh, my gosh. Well, if there's anything in my life that I can expedite by using AI, I try to do it. And for me, a lot of my search, my daily search has moved to artificial intelligence first. So that's my best tip is a lot of the scrolling that I was previously doing on sites like Google. I'm now asking myself, can I get my answer faster another way? And these days, if you just Google things, you're probably going to get Google Gemini jumping in to give you an answer up front of the traditional list of links that Google gave us just a few years ago.

46:42Loren Horst:Well, underneath all of these LLMs, something less glamorous exists, and that's just data. Because before you can train an AI model, of course, you need a place where enormous amounts of data can live and be cleaned. That's right. We clean data these days. Be accessed quickly. And a few companies have built entire businesses around doing exactly that. Stock number eight is Snowflake. Ticker symbol S-N-O-W, Snowflake, provides a cloud-based data platform that allows companies to store and share and analyze massive data sets across multiple cloud providers. The company was founded in 2012, became a closely watched software IPO in 2020.

47:27Loren Horst:I suppose I'd say a pretty disappointing performer over the years. Emily Flippen, what is your state of market cap range for Snowflake, ticker symbol S-N-O-W? you? I'm going to give a range of$43 to$65 billion. $43 to$65 billion. In some ways, Emily, since you've already mathematically won, you probably don't even really care, right? You're up six to one right now. I very much care, David. My pride is on the line. And I'm glad you do because the main point that I always make at the start and end of these shows is we're not actually playing it for each other. We're playing it for you. And there are people at home right now who have a higher score possibly than Emily.

48:09Loren Horst:Somebody probably has seven right now and they're going for 10. And so some people are still in it to win it. And Lauren, I know you, I've gotten to know you over a decade. You're not a quitter. Yeah, I'm a competitive person. I know Emily's a competitive person. We both want to win. The outcome of this matchup is determined, but the final score still is not. Well said. And speaking of scores, Emily was scoring Snowflakes market cap range,$43 billion to$65 billion. Feels like a generous range. Lauren, is this a stock you've looked at? It is a little bit. And it's one that I own. And I know Emily and I were slacking before today, just like, hey, are you studying for this formally?

48:48Loren Horst:And I'm like, there are certain companies, the ones that I own, that I really don't want to get wrong. And this is one that I do own shares of. I'm really confident on the higher end of Emily's range. The problem is, I was thinking somewhere between 60 and 70. And her high point is right in the middle of that. So it feels like a coin flip for me, but I'm thinking that it's closer to 60. And so I'm going to agree with Emily. All right. So Lauren has agreed people at home, especially those who have seven points right now. Do you want to agree or disagree with Emily? Lauren has agreed. All right.

49:24Loren Horst:You did that. And if you agreed, give yourself a plus one, creating some new momentum as we start moving towards show close. Nicely done, Lauren. Nicely done, Emily. Yeah. Snowflake,$59.89 billion. So, yeah, it was real close to$60 billion, as you figured out, Lauren. You know, Snowflake had a really interesting IPO. It was 2020. And it was really one of the more notable technology IPOs in recent history, in part because Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway had invested in the company before it went public. And that's something that Buffett almost never does with high growth technology centered IPO.

50:03Loren Horst:So Snowflake, I would say, definitely got some notoriety going from that. Again, this is a stock that we've covered in our services. It has been picked in the past in Rule Breakers and many other Motley Fool services. It's kind of a sideways player here over the last few years. I think it's even maybe a little lower than where it IPO'd in 2020. Even though the business is expanding. It's certainly gotten caught up in a lot of the concern over enterprise software, especially the impact of AI. And it went public at a time when there was a lot of excitement and hype over enterprise software. And now, unfortunately, we're sitting here evaluating at a time when the narrative has very much changed.

50:39Loren Horst:I hope I'm not misremembering how Tim Byers was framing this whenever it was recommended in Rule Breakers. But I think I remember him adding it to the scorecard with the context of this is a wonderful business. This is a business we have a lot of confidence in. The price right now is inflated, especially right after the IPO, because it was, if I remember correctly, he did recommend it right away just to get it on the scorecard with a little bit of hesitance on the pricing then. Yeah, it's ironic, isn't it, that if software companies are being dinged by AI, this particular software company is there.

51:14Loren Horst:so AI companies can store and clean and access their data. And it is, I'm sure, a bigger business today than when it IPO'd five years ago. It's also worth just mentioning that Snowflake uses a consumption-based pricing model. So, you know, a lot of software companies have fixed subscriptions, but customers of Snowflake pay based on how much data they store and how often they query it. So that means revenue can scale directly with customer usage rather than just a seat count or licensing. So a fun fact about a software platform company supporting AI data. It sounds like such a complicated business when you think their name is just Snowflake and their ticker symbol is Snow.

51:55Loren Horst:Let's move on to company number nine. Turning back to Lauren. Lauren, let me ask you about a very specific social situation. Are you ready? I hope so. You walk up to an elevator. Door opens. There's one person already inside. What's your move? stand as far away from them as possible and immediately look at my phone. Like maybe a head nod at most, like make eye contact. So it's not weird. And then I'm like, I'm not trying to talk to anyone. Okay. I don't know why I think this is so funny, but I do. We all experience this. Let's, let's scale it up a little bit, Lauren. So same elevator, but now it's five people.

52:37Loren Horst:Maybe let's say a whole family is squeezed in there with, with little kids. Do your instincts change at all? Do you have a, Do you have a consistent approach to this kind of a situation? Yeah, if I'm getting into a full elevator, I'm probably doing generally the same thing, just trying to take up as little space as possible in the corner. And if, you know, if more people come on along the way, then that's just what happens sometimes. All right. Let's just go one notch higher and then we'll get to the stock. But you're boarding an elevator. It's floor three. There are 15 other people on the elevator already.

53:10Loren Horst:you're in a skyscraper and the somewhat slow moving elevator is going to take more than two minutes to get to the top now as you board everyone else is presently silent you have a choice where to position yourself are you taking the same approach or does your elevator philosophy start to differ contextually i'm trying to think about this yeah if i'm going down i'm just going to take the stairs if i'm going up you're going up you're on floor three there's 15 people there They're all quiet. Do I have the options? It's going to be more than two minutes. Do I have the choice to wait for another elevator?

53:43Loren Horst:You do not. Okay. Yeah, I think I'm just - This is the only elevator in the skyscraper. I'm going to take whatever space is available, and it might just be that there's enough room just for me to take one step in, and then as everyone else is facing out, I'm still facing into the middle of the elevator. So you're not the person who walks on and is just standing staring at everybody with your back to the door. Only if that's necessary. Because I've gotten on the metro train sometimes, and that's the only choice that I have. Yeah, yeah. All right, stock number nine is Otis Worldwide, ticker symbol O-T-I-S.

54:21Loren Horst:Otis is one of the world's leading manufacturers of elevators and escalators with millions of units installed globally and a massive service business just maintaining them. A company was founded, by the way, in 1853 when Elisha Otis introduced the safety brake that made modern elevators possible. Lauren Hurst, what is your stated market cap range for Otis Worldwide Corporation, ticker symbol OTIS? Is this one a Motley Fool recommendation? I'm going to cover that. I'll mention that. That's a fair question. Yes. This company only came public a few years ago, surprisingly, because it's been around more than a century.

55:04Loren Horst:It was spun off and it has been picked by Dividend Investor, one of the Motley Fool's popular services. This is a dividend payer. I don't think that unfairly biases you or those listening because in the end it all comes down to the range and agree or disagree. Any information I can get at this point. I'm going to I'm going to say a range of 34 to 52 billion. 34 billion to 52 billion dollars. Emily, have you ever been on an elevator? Never in my life. Oh my gosh. Yeah, can you believe it? That is shocking. So if you were to go on an elevator, would you take the same disciplined approach that Lauren takes, or do you have your own elevator philosophy?

55:44It depends on my mood. I normally am a chronic introvert who will avoid people at all costs, but if you get me in the right mood, sometimes I will walk onto an elevator and if everybody is sitting there quietly, something will overcome and I will feel the need to just make conversation. I'll be that awful person and everyone's like, God, can the elevator just speed up a little bit, please.

56:05Loren Horst:Are you looking forward to overanalyzing your behavior the next five times you get on an elevator? Yes, exactly, exactly. I mean, it is a situation we all have faced, except for Emily, apparently, until right now. She's never been on an elevator, but most of us have. And it's all contextual for me. I relate to what Emily said. Emily, I also generally would look to lighten things up a little bit, which I think is the wrong social move most of the time I'm doing it. I think we should just keep our mouths shut and look at our phone with Lauren. But more importantly, Lauren's stated market cap range for Otis Worldwide was$34 billion to$52 billion.

56:40Before you give your official answer, Emily, which way are you kind of leaning right now? This is actually so interesting because you mentioned this is a recommendation in dividend investor. And I know that team of Matt Argersinger and Ant Chavone. And they are really strict and diligent about their process for picking dividend payers. And I'm surprised that this is such a new business to public markets. Their standards are incredibly high. That's all I'll say. So I'm very interested in learning more about this company, which is all to say I know nothing about it right now. Directionally, I actually feel like I agree with Lauren.

57:12If I had to pick on one side of the range, I would think it would be smaller. The range that Lauren gave was, in my opinion, if he's not playing me right now, he doesn't seem to know too much about it. It seems like a tight range for a company with little extra knowledge. So I think I have to disagree just because of the tight range. And I do think if anything, it would probably be smaller.

57:34Loren Horst:All right. If anything, it would probably be smaller. Emily said, what about you, players at home, especially those who have eight points right now? Do you want to agree with Lauren's 34 to 52 or with Emily disagree? I'm going to say Lauren made a pretty good call and Emily called it right and gets the plus one because the market cap of Otis Worldwide Corporation,$32.72 billion. Again, it feels as if Lauren has... If we had just taped a few days ago. It just feels as if he's constantly getting these things mostly right, but not getting the points. And Emily, you have your head in your hands a little bit.

58:11Loren Horst:Do you feel ashamed in some way or guilty? Yes, and I will say, not that everything has to circle back to my time on Survivor, but this is very much how I felt on Survivor, which was to say, I don't, you know, looking back at my time on 45, I played a comparatively bad game, but other people kept getting sent home. And I woke up there on day 21 and, you know, all the castmates are gone. And I'm like, how did I end up here? I feel very, very lucky. And yes, I feel guilty. These are some dirty points I'm getting, but I will take the points nonetheless. And sometimes you get blindsided by the stock market.

58:43Loren Horst:That too. And, you know, prices change. The stock probably was at 34 and a half yesterday, but it's 32 something today. So just outside Lauren's range. Emily, last week you were presented, do you remember this? Mitsubishi Electric. I unfortunately remember it. Yeah, that's also a major worldwide manufacturer of elevators. I think more of us listening to the show this week are going to be paying attention to the brand of the elevator that we're on or the escalator than did before. I think that's a safe assumption. But yeah, Mitsubishi Electric. Do you remember the range you came up with? Bill Barker guessed.

59:15Loren Horst:Do you remember what happened? I do, because I gave an incredibly large, probably the largest range I've ever given on the show of$60 to$120 billion. That is correct. You said$60 to$120 billion. Now, Mitsubishi Electric makes other things besides just elevators, but Bill said outside, and it was$69.89 billion. So Mitsubishi clocking in at about$70 billion. Otis Worldwide, about half of that. But you asked about the dividend a little bit, and let's just lay it out there. The dividend yield for this company. So that's essentially, I might say, the interest rate you get paid for just holding the stock if it just sits stable for a whole year, 2.0 percent.

59:54Loren Horst:So it's got a 2 percent dividend yield. It is a dividend pair. This kind of like I was thinking, first of all, I've heard Otis. I just think about I'm sure I've seen that elevator brand before, even though I never really pay attention to my elevators. And yet for them only to have come public a few years ago, shocking. So the reason is that United Technologies owned them for decades and then decided to spin the company out in 2020, the same year that Snowflake came public. And yeah, elevators. Who knew? All right, I think the score is 7-2. Emily has clearly won the world championship. But as I often say right around stock number 10, whenever this happens, Lauren, a lot of us tend to remember just what happens at the end of stories.

1:00:39Loren Horst:So you have an opportunity to really secure your place in history here if you can nail stock number 10. Are you feeling that? I'm ready to go. I'm getting started for next season, I guess, at this point. Love it. And yeah, you look in pretty good shape already here in March. Summer hasn't even started. Emily, I'm turning to you for stock number 10. By the process of elimination, you can already conclude, by the way, this is a throwdown.

1:01:06Loren Horst:So those listening carefully, you know what's coming. Emily and Lauren will be writing down their market caps, but I'm going to ask Emily a little bit of a challenging question because she's Emily. She's up for it. We're going to play a quick game of word association. Oh, I love that. Yeah, so I'm going to say word, and then I just want you to do two things, actually. A, give me the first words you associate with that word, followed by B, a short anecdote or story or reflection from your life related to this word. You game? Sounds great. Okay, here it is. Blood. I don't know why that's funny, Lauren.

1:01:44Clocktower was the first thing that came to mind. Nice.

1:01:47Loren Horst:Very popular social deduction game these days, Blood and the Clocktower. I'm actually shocked that you made that connection. I imagine most people listening would think to themselves, why would that be the first word? Gamer alert, but game knows game. So yeah. It is a very popular social deduction board game that I do play online occasionally. I'm going to say that fulfills A, my request A, but B, Emily, just a short anecdote or story or reflection. Your life in blood. My life in blood. Goodness gracious.

1:02:18Loren Horst:It sounds like an art installation I don't want to go to. Have you ever hurt someone? There was a period of my life where I did. I think the most pain I've ever caused someone was I did break the arm of my cousin by jamming it in a door. Wow. Now, luckily, the blood was limited, but the pain of which I connect was was relatively high. All right. Good. That definitely fulfilled. B. Thank you for playing. By the way, one thing that Emily is very modest about, she never talks about this, but she has a lot of experience as a debater at a national level back there in school. You were a debate club champion.

1:02:54Loren Horst:And so I know you're ready for anything. When I throw out a word game and ask you to tell a story, it almost doesn't matter what I say. You're going to deliver. I'm shocked that you remember that about me, David. Don't be shocked. Okay. All right. Stock number 10. It is a throwdown. Stock number 10 is Quest Quest Diagnostics, ticker symbol DGX. Quest Diagnostics, one of the largest providers of medical lab testing services in the U.S., processing millions of tests each year for patients, hospitals, and physicians. Company, by the way, founded in 1967. It plays a central role in modern healthcare by helping detect and monitor and diagnose disease through lab data, sometimes in the form, right, of blood.

1:03:35Loren Horst:So yes, stock number 10 is a throwdown. You know the drill fools, pencils back out, Emily, Lauren are each right now writing down their best market cap range for Quest Diagnostics, whose ticker symbol is DGX. And puzzling that out, by the way, I think that's Diagnostics. DGX, Diagnostics. I think that's why they went with it. Q was probably already taken when they came public. Okay, again, if both ranges are correct, tighter range wins. If they both miss, we invoke the Barker protocol. call. Whoever's nearest parameter lands closest to the actual market cap takes the point. Quest Diagnostics, turning back now to you, Emily, what have you written down for Quest Diagnostics?

1:04:16This is one that actually it sits on the Stock Advisor scorecard. It was brought to my attention by Matt Argersinger on the dividend team said, hey, I think I think the team is sleeping on this one. And I will say when I started to do research here, it took up a lot of my time because the The intricacies of our healthcare system here in the United States and what Quest Diagnostics does, where it fits in the value change, very complicated. So I have an idea about the market cap directionally, not the specifics that lost on me. So my range is large, but hoping it's directionally accurate. My range is$20 to$30 billion.

1:04:46Loren Horst:$20 billion to$30 billion is what Emily has written down on her Post-it note. Lauren, what have you written down and why? I think it's a little bit smaller. I wrote down 13.1 to 17.9, thinking in the off chance we were both somewhere in the teens, I might just be a fraction of a percentage closer here. Yeah. And this is one of those companies where I think we've all been customers, but we don't necessarily pay attention. In fact, I'm generally averting my gaze when a needle goes into my arm. I don't have real problems about blood. I would just rather not watch blood come out of me. I don't know about you.

1:05:21I'm the same way. I hear I have great veins, though. Every single time I give blood or have to have my blood taken, they have no problem taking it. But if I cannot watch them, I much prefer to not watch.

1:05:31Loren Horst:Well, you're not allowed not to watch, listener at home. You have to say, Emily or Lauren. Emily said$20 billion to$30 billion. Lauren said$13.1 billion to$17.9 billion. Again, these players are good. A lot of people, I submit to you, if you're on the subway and you just buttonhole somebody because you're standing too close to them because there's an awkward elevator moment, but you're on the subway and you would just say, what's the market cap of Quest Diagnostics? I think most people would look at you funny and not even know what you're talking about. But these two people keep shooting all around the truth right near it.

1:06:08Loren Horst:The market cap for Quest Diagnostics,$21.91 billion. That does fall within Emily's 20 to 30 and just outside Lauren's tighter, disciplined, mid-teens. market range. So Emily, you've scored yet another point and you are our 2026 market cap game show world champion.

1:06:32Now I do feel like I stole this to be clear. I will take the win and yeah, honored, honored to be here. Oh my gosh.

1:06:39Loren Horst:And you know, we'll have festivities and no doubt some post-production sound effects added by Bart at the end, but let me just close the loop here on Quest Diagnostics first. Yeah, COVID-19, I think this company probably came to mind for more of us, more during that period than any other. But the testing capacity nationwide, I mean, they process tens of millions of COVID tests. And that highlights just how central large lab networks are to public health infrastructures. So that is the story. $21.91 billion for Quest diagnostics. Emily Flippin, eight. Lauren Hurst, two. And so another one is in the books.

1:07:19Loren Horst:I believe this is the third year that we've done March Market Cap Madness. Of course, we do the game show once a quarter, and have done that for many years now. But it was only three years ago I started thinking, you know, I really do love March Madness. I think it's so much fun to watch college basketball, men's and or women's. This is always a special month for sports fans in the U.S. But I thought, you know, they need some competition and so that's why we bring march market cap madness to you and you play along with us every march so i want to thank both of our talented finalists the final accounting is emily eight lauren two but lauren and emily and i know that we're not playing this game for each other we're playing for you so how did you score listeners at home dear fools we hope that you outscored all of us the purpose of the market cap game show especially a march market cap man is to make more popular.

1:08:11Loren Horst:I'm never going to say as popular as nationwide basketball tournaments or even the Super Bowl a month or two ago, but to make more popular market caps, the real value of stocks on the market that most people don't understand. And so we're trying to educate, to amuse and to enrich you. And we're glad that you spent this hour with us. In fact, thanks for spending the whole month with us. The biggest fans of the March market cap madness each year. I want to turn now to each of my finalists for a final line. Lauren? It was a blast going up against a murderer's row of Jason Moser, Andy Cross, and Emily Flippen.

1:08:45Loren Horst:I congratulate the world champion, the best in the world. And because she's technically my boss, I hope this doesn't impact my next performance review. And the last line from you, Emily. Well, I didn't think about that dynamic until just now, Lauren. And now I feel like you might have thrown this in my favor, and I'm going to be reflecting on that. But my last line is here, A, honored to be here. Super excited to defend my title now for the second year. But David, I'm going to end with a recommendation that at some point in the future, we could have a either March Madness market cap game show any other month or anything like that where we have no idea what we're walking into.

1:09:24A fake podcast episode potentially where we come in expecting something entirely different and then surprise us with market caps. Zero preparation.

1:09:35Loren Horst:I see. Okay. Because part of the magic, Emily, is there is some preparation on your parts. I'm sure now you're doing this every day anyway, so that's really the preparation. Even if it's just keeping a diligent lookout as we're going through our daily work, as we both work on Stock Advisor and other companies, you know, keeping it out for the market cap. Just an extra little look, thinking to ourselves, okay, who reported earnings? What stocks are up or down? On any random day, if you come across me on a subway, hey, Emily, what's the market cap of Dexcom? A subway? Or, yeah, maybe an elevator.

1:10:05Loren Horst:Well, thank you again to Emily Flippen and Lauren Hurst. And Emily, congratulations. Here's your virtual crown. Here is your gaudy, oversized virtual championship ring. And here's a foolish high five from me for the year 2026 and reigning until this time next year. You are the Market Cap Game Show World Champion. Oh, my gosh. Look at that full fetty fall. It's everywhere. Full on. 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.