Over the years we have heard other professional investors proclaim that they predominantly focus on finding companies with large moats. Many ascribe the moat philosophy to famed value investor Warren Buffett. With all due respect to Mr. Buffett and his legion of disciples, we are not sure that strategy neceassily works for growth investing. The huge concentration of investors in a small handful of mega cap growth companies this year appears to be a cocktail of momentum, FOMO, performance chasing and, we suspect, a belief by some that the market has sussed out the small handful of long-term winners in AI and other sexy secular growth trends with large moats. Our decades of experience investing in innovative companies causes us to challenge the concept of moats.

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The companies identified do not represent all of the companies purchased, sold or recommended for portfolios advised by Pier 88 Investment Partners, LLC. The reader should not assume that investment in any company was or will be profitable. Additional information including a list of all companies is available upon request.