The Bear Cave #344
Welcome to The Bear Cave! The last premium articles for paid readers were: “ 5 Education Stocks in AI’s Blast Radius ” and “ Problems at Jackson Financial ($JXN) .” Our next special investigation is scheduled for Thursday, October 1. Subscribe now New Activist Reports J Capital Research published on Hub Group (NASDAQ: HUBG — $2.00 billion), a logistics company whose revenue, profits and operating cash flow have all been sliding in recent years. J Capital argues the accounting misstatements Hub disclosed in February are probably not the whole story: seven months later, the company still has not filed corrected historicals or its 2026 quarterlies. J Capital Research writes: “We believe these disclosures on faulty accounting could worsen, and with continued tough industry conditions, there may be more bad news not factored into Hub Group’s share price.” Grizzly Research published on Raiffeisen Bank International (VIE: RBI — $22.9 billion), the Vienna-listed owner of the largest Western bank still operating in Russia. Grizzly says it found $1.19 billion of Russian trade in restricted goods on customs records carrying the bank’s contract-registration code, including $107 million of items Western governments treat as most critical to Russia’s war effort. Posing as customers, Grizzly Research reporters convinced one manager to agree to route payments to Iran on the bank’s books, and were told by other managers that a fund openly raising money for Russian war drones could open an account. GlassHouse Research published on Astrana Health (NASDAQ: ASTH — $1.70 billion), a physician-network operator that has grown by acquisition. GlassHouse argues that Astrana’s reported profit relies on an “unusual stack of management estimates;” and that the company’s growth is dependent on a debt-fueled acquisition pipeline. The auditor has issued an adverse opinion on internal controls. In addition to the report in The Bear Cave, QVT — a billion dollar family office — published on Jackson Financial (NYSE: JXN — $8.99 billion) , arguing the variable annuity life insurer faces significant liquidity and solvency challenges. Read the full report here . Notable Departures Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Gold.com (NYSE: GOLD — $1.33 billion) resigned on September 14, effective four days later, about fifteen months into the job. The precious-metals dealer’s audit committee dismissed Grant Thornton and hired KPMG the same day. Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Crown Castle (NYSE: CCI — $31.1 billion) will retire on March 31, about two years into the role. The company’s Chief Operating Officer will step away from all roles in February. Crown Castle treated each exit as a “qualifying termination.” Executive Vice President of Quality and Global Operations at Dexcom (NASDAQ: DXCM — $33.7 billion) has apparently left the company nine months into the job, based on Dexcom’s website. Two other senior executives, Dexcom’s CTO and its Head of Regulatory, Medical, and Clinical Affairs, disappeared from the same leadership page earlier this year. Hunterbrook Media has repeatedly written about quality issues at Dexcom. Ondas (NASDAQ: ONDS — $4.30 billion) has seen a mass exodus, at least according to the management team page of its website. Canary Data found that Ondas saw its Chief Solutions and Operations Officer, President of Autonomous Systems, and “recently appointed” Global President & Chairman all removed from the drone roll-up’s site. Ondas has not disclosed any departures, so perhaps it’s just a new web design! Chief Credit Risk Officer at Klarna Group (NYSE: KLAR — $5.22 billion) disappeared from the company’s website — months after the company’s CFO and CMO announced their departures. Departures surfaced through Canary Data . News of the Week “Oracle’s $18bn data centre debt under strain amid local pushback” ( FT ) “About $18bn of loans tied to a data centre leased to Oracle in New Mexico slid into stressed territory on Friday, highlighting investors’ fear that increasing local backlash will derail the tech group’s massive AI infrastructure build-out. Loans linked to “Project Jupiter” were privately quoted at 89 to 91 cents on the dollar by syndicate banks including Santander and Jefferies, according to people familiar with the matter. Healthy debt typically trades within a tight band near par. The 1,400-acre data centre campus in Doña Ana County is at the heart of Oracle’s landmark $300bn contract with OpenAI to provide computing power. The marquee project secured $18bn of loans from a consortium of banks late last year to kick-start construction, along with billions of equity investment from Blue Owl.” Tweets of the Week Until next week, The Bear Cave New? Sign Up Here Got Feedback? Just Hit Reply The Bear Cave is Not Investment Advice. See Full Disclosures Here . Twitter: @BearCaveEmail