JB Hi-Fi – Running through the company in detail

JBH new CEO + Understanding the quality of their world-leading business

JB Hi-fi (JBH.ASX) has been one of the most polarising stocks in the market over the past few years and has consistently been one of the most heavily shorted…

JB Hi-fi (JBH.ASX) has been one of the most polarising stocks in the market over the past few years and has consistently been one of the most heavily shorted stocks on the ASX. In 2016 the consensus view was that JBH had overpaid for electronics and whitegoods retailer the Good Guys and had taken on too much debt, in 2017/18 the consensus view was that Amazon was going to permanently damage the company by undercutting pricing; and in 2020 rising unemployment would kill retail sales.

In all of these cases the nay-sayers have been proved wrong with JBH returning +150% over the past 5 years (vs ASX 200 +35%) and the stock being a graveyard for short-sellers Earlier this week JBH was again in the news releasing a very solid trading update for Q1 2021 (Q1 2021 sales up 11.5%), but also announcing that their CEO had jumped ship to clothing retailer Premier Investments.

Hugh Dive from Atlas Funds Management walks us through the finances and quality metrics of JB Hi Fi to understand how they’re a world leader in the cost of doing business, despite the relatively high Australian wages on the global scale.