Murph,
I think that noone would disagree that Underarmor is growing much faster than Nike and Skechers, the issue is that investing isn’t about only identifying fundamental trends, it’s also analyzing how much the market is demanding for those trends, then making an estimate as to whether that’s a fair price.
Skechers is priced at 10-12x cash flow, while Underarmor is still at 40x or so cash flow even after a 20% drop in the past few days. I understand you probably know this, just wanted to point out that only discussing fundamental merits without looking at price is a bit disingenious
That said, I think there’s probably a lot of anguish around these parts about Skechers because the stock has changed profiles, from a fast grower to more of a value play - psychologically, investors get a lot of discomfort if they think they are buying one category while they really end up with the other.
Holding a growth story feels good - everything is firing on all cylinders, you only get good news, and the price is at a premium. You make money because reality is even BETTER than the market prices it to be. Holding a value/turnaround story involves a lot of hand wringing, and you make money because reality isn’t as BAD as the market prices it to be - much more depressing
However, as I’ve disclosed earlier, I’m holding and monitoring for now, at least through 2nd quarter of 2017