The 2025 Sohn New York Conference is coming up next week, and it will bring a long list of interesting and exciting ideas along with it. It’s always interesting to see how last year’s ideas fared, so let’s take an in-depth look at how some of the picks from the 2024 Sohn New York Conference have done over the past year. The conference was held on April 3, 2024.
New Wave Speakers
Eric Wolff
Gumshoe Capital’s Eric Wolff pitched Pason (TSE:PSI), a Canadian energy company. His thesis for the then-$1.3 billion market cap company revolved around its dominant market position.
Pason held 60% to 85% of the market in the U.S. and Australia, which enabled it to raise the cost of its services by 9% annually since 2017, boosting revenue 14% over the same time period. Pason provides an electronic drilling recorder for oil and gas companies.
According to Wolff, Pason was undervalued at the time, but unfortunately, it hasn’t fared so well over the last year. Its market capitalization has tumbled to C$876.4 million. On March 28, 2024, Pason was trading at around C$14.45.
It received a bit of a bump from the conference, rising to $16.70 by April 5. However, over the last 12 months, Pason stock has tumbled 30%, falling from its peak of around C$18 in July 2024 to C$11 as of midday on May 9, 2025, according to Google Finance.
Michelle Ross
StemPoint Capital’s Michelle Ross was long biotech Crinetics Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:CRNX), which she described as a “pioneer in endocrine medicine.” She believed the company was a GLP-1-adjacent investment that would benefit greatly from the obesity market’s growth and the growing focus on endocrine health.
Unlike Pason, Crinetics didn’t really receive much of a post-conference bump, trading below $47 on March 28, 2024 and then rising to $47.53 on April 5. Over the past 12 months, Crinetics stock is off 36%.
Nikhil and Krish Daftary
NK Capital’s Nikhil and Krish Daftary pitched convenience store chain Couche Tard (TSE:ATD). They noted that these stores will continue to benefit from demand for merchandise even if demand for fuel falls. They added that only half of convenience stores’ revenue comes from fuel, while the rest is from merchandise.
Couche Tard was trading at C$77.31 on March 28, 2024 but had fallen to C$75.45 by April 5, 2024. Over the past 12 months, the stock is off 7% as the attempted acquisition of 7-Eleven hangs in the balance.
Gor Ter-Grigoryan
Sellaronda Global’s Gor Ter-Grigoryan suggested Schibsted (OL:SCHA), a Norwegian media conglomerate. According to his thesis, the company was in the early innings of exercising pricing power in the real estate and mobility verticals, which drove 70% to 80% of EBITDA.
At the time, the company was simplifying its corporate structure by divesting its newspaper division and selling its majority stake in a company to a Blackstone-led consortium. Ter-Grigoryan also highlighted Schibsted’s marketplace business.
Although weekly numbers for Schibsted aren’t available, the stock has slipped 7% over the past 12 months.
2024 Sohn New York Conference
Seth Fischer
Oasis Management’s Seth Fischer pitched the Japanese cosmetics company Kao (TKO:4452). He said people love their products, but the company failed to achieve its potential because “management is not even trying.”
Kao spent much less on advertising than its comps, and no one under the board is under 60 or a woman. Fischer also said the company had poor distribution with more SKUs than Procter & Gamble, although P&G had 9x more sales. He believed Kao was worth 75% more than what it was trading at then.
Kao stock popped immediately after the 2024 Sohn New York Conference, rising from ¥6,145 on April 1, 2024 to ¥6,260 on April 8. The shares continued to rise through the 10th, hitting ¥6,756, although the stock is off almost 4% over the last 12 months.
Scott Goodwin
Diameter Capital’s Scott Goodwin offered up his thesis for what was left of Signature Bank (OTCMKTS:SBNY). Most of the company’s $32 billion pool was sold to Blackstone and JV partners, including a $27.4 billion pool of first-day mortgages. The FDIC claim related to the bank’s failure covered 85%, so it lost about 15%. Nine percent of all deposits were uninsured. Two days before the FDIC took control of Signature Bank, it had 20% of insured deposits left. Then it started unloading assets, selling them to Blackstone in March.
Signature Bank had about $60 billion in assets, half of which were in CRI loans. In September, the bank sold to Goldman Sachs and PNC for 90 to 95 cents per dollar, leaving it with $32 billion in New York CRI loans.
Many of Signature Bank’s loans have maturities in the coming years, although most were five to seven years away. Goodwin estimated an 8% default rate on the CRE loans According to him, Signature Bank was a long-duration platy with a 3-6x return over the next five years.
Signature Bank stock was trading at $2.30 a share on March 28, 2024, and it rose to $3.18 a share by April 5, 2024. However, the stock has not held up over the last 12 months, plunging more than 60%.
Jesse Cohn
Elliott Investment Management’s Jesse Cohn pitched e-commerce company Etsy Inc (NASDAQ:ETSY), known for unique, creative handmade goods. He explained that the company “doesn’t compete on price or cheaper shipping, sale commerce assets,” adding that its “storage is actually different from Amazon.”
Cohn liked Etsy’s free cash flow but noted the company was out of favor, although he felt it was the same Etsy and offered some low-hanging fruit.
Etsy shares were trading at $68.72 on March 28, 2024 and fell to $64.98 on April 5. The stock is off 26% over the last 12 months.
