Alpesh B Patel OBEManaging Partner (UK), RootBridge Capital · Asset Management. Great Investments Programme. 18 Books, Bloomberg TV alum & FT Columnist, BBC Paper Reviewer; Fmr Visiting Fellow, Oxford Uni. Multi-TEDx. UK Govt Dealmaker. alpeshpatel.com/links Pro

Unusual Outliers: Investing in Profitable Companies #shorts

8 Jun 2026 · 1 min

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0:43

In this YouTube short, the speaker explains why two companies—highlighted with Seagate as an example—appear as statistical outliers among roughly 20,000 securities, occupying positions in the top 32. He argues that their presence is due to exceptional profitability, which aligns with the investment strategy of targeting highly profitable firms. The companies qualify for the portfolio because they score well across multiple dimensions—value, growth, income, and cash flow—demonstrating that profitability combined with strong fundamentals makes them resilient and worthy of inclusion despite their rarity.

Chapters

The reason I say that's unusual is because out of 20,000 securities, to have had 2 in the top 32 statistically is improbable. So how did those come about into our portfolios? Well, it's because they're outliers in a very different way. First of all, they're outliers because they're incredibly profitable. We tend to invest in very profitable companies. So Seagate, got in because value, growth, income, cash flow, all of those factors still put it in there. Those are unusual in that they're profitable and managed to do that. That's not to say profitable companies are bad. Profitable companies are actually rather good, of course, because they give you more resilience on the whole.