Adam Buckstein

El Al has become an almost monopoly on flying in and out of Ben Gurion since October 7, 2023, as Turkish Airlines, Pegasus, Ryanair and others left and El Al became the only carrier consistently able and willing to fly. The wartime disruption has produced three years of windfall profits, delevered the balance sheet from net debt to a large net cash position, and let El Al buy nine aircraft off lease, moving to roughly 80% owned fleet, with $1B+ of owned planes and a ~$700M loyalty/credit-card program as hard-asset support. It trades around 2.3x EV/EBITDA versus peers at 5-6x; normalized 2023 free cash flow was $100-200M against a ~$2B EV; two more quarters of gushing profits should further buy down EV; and the government has shown an implicit backstop/collaborative relationship. If it trades closer to airline peers on normalized earnings, that would be a nice return, with downside supported by assets.

Stride (LRN) is a misunderstood, cheap, sticky, cash-generative leader in U.S. virtual public schooling. It is not a for-profit college: it contracts with independent public school boards, is funded by state per-pupil formulas rather than Title IV student loans, and has multi-year contracts that are difficult for districts to replace. Scale advantages, regulatory complexity, post-COVID demand, and recession-resistant public education funding support a durable growth runway. Adam argues the October collapse after the Canvas/PowerSchool LMS implementation caused enrollment losses and the New Mexico lawsuit is overdone and not existential. LRN generates strong free cash flow, trades around 9x free cash flow to equity, is buying back $500 million of stock, and should be a net beneficiary of AI on curriculum and cost structure.