How does a “boring” electrical engineering firm from Texas become one of the best-performing stocks on the NASDAQ? In this episode, we sit down with Tobias Bucks from Ausbil to dissect Powell Industries (NASDAQ: POWL). While the stock’s recent vertical climb has caught the market’s attention, the reality is that Powell is an overnight success story 79 years in the making.
Beyond the stock pitch, Tobias opens up his investment playbook, sharing how his background in anthropology shapes the way he asks questions, uncovers “unrecognised growth,” and identifies workplace cultures that the market has failed to imagine.
In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
The art of the question
Tobias explains why “markets are efficient but have no imagination.” We start with his unique process for analysing companies, a process Tobias and his co-portfolio manager Simon Wood have honed over decades.
- A question about questions: How an academic background in human behavior helps in vetting management culture and asking better questions.
- The filter: The specific set of questions Tobias and his team use to find “unrecognised growth.”
- Beyond the spreadsheet: Why the most important data points often aren’t found in a terminal, but in the gap between a company’s narrative and its execution.
Powell Industries: The 79-Year evolution
We trace the history of Powell, founded in 1947, and how its deeply-ingrained culture survived decades of family leadership to meet the modern moment.
- The Product: From custom switchgear to complex integrated power solutions.
- The Pivot: How their customer base shifted from a heavy reliance on the Texas oil and gas cycle to becoming a mission-critical provider for data centers and the electrical grid.
- The Order Book: Why customers are now “falling over themselves” for Powell’s products and what that means for future earnings.
The investment case: Growth the market missed
Tobias walks us through the lifecycle of the investment:
- The Ideation: When did Powell first hit the Ausbil radar, and what were the “must-answer” questions before building a position?
- Testing the Narrative: Is Powell just an “AI spend” beneficiary, or is this a structural shift in global infrastructure?
- Managing Risk: Discussing the cyclical nature of their industry and how to know when it’s time to exit.
- The “Watchlist” Strategy: Under what conditions would Tobias sell out and then re-enter a position?
