u/jhellaw

The author argues Booking is the company Buffett would buy today as a 'quality at a reasonable price' play, citing a wide moat evidenced by a 32.8% margin because small independent European hotels must pay Booking's commission. The catch the author states is that at roughly 15x EV/EBIT it fails the EV/EBIT < 7 deep-value test, so it is a premium business at a fair price rather than a cigar butt. No specific catalyst or time horizon is given beyond the quality-at-a-reasonable-price framing.

The author argues AutoTrader's ~40% decline is unjustified because the company has zero debt, is buying back shares at depressed prices, and pushed through a 5.5% price increase showing pricing power. The main company-specific issue, the Deal Builder rollout, has only caused fewer than 100 of 14,000 customers (0.7%) to leave or downgrade, which the author believes management will fix and recover. A reverse DCF at ~470 GBX implies the market prices ~0% free cash flow growth for five years, which the author sees as overly pessimistic. Main risk is the Deal Builder rollout causing further customer losses or analyst downgrades.