Tech stocks helped lift equities higher as investors reacted to continued enthusiasm surrounding SpaceX and broader developments affecting the sector.
BNN Bloomberg spoke with Molly Pieroni, president of Yacktman Asset Management, who explained why her firm remains cautious on SpaceX despite its popularity and highlighted robotics as a potential long-term investment theme.
Key Takeaways
- SpaceX’s valuation and lack of profitability make it difficult to justify under a traditional value-investing framework.
- The company faces risks including key-person dependence, regulatory hurdles and significant capital requirements.
- Insider-controlled companies can create long-term value when management maintains an ownership mindset and focuses on capital allocation.
- Hyundai Motor’s robotics business may be overlooked by investors because it remains a relatively small part of the company’s overall operations.
- Growing adoption of industrial and humanoid robotics could create future growth opportunities beyond the automotive sector.
Read the full transcript below:
LINDSAY: Well, markets are moving today, led by tech stocks, and we’re looking at what’s leading the move. Here to talk about that and more is Molly Pieroni, president of Yacktman Asset Management. It’s great to have you join us. Good morning.
MOLLY: Good morning. Great to be here.
LINDSAY: So, we’re seeing markets very much in the green today. How much of the market movement we’re seeing do you think is led by tech stocks, or what do you think is really driving the markets today?
MOLLY: Well, we’re in the second day of SpaceX trading, so perhaps that has something to do with it. It’s the second day of the world’s largest IPO, and it’s up again today. That’s clearly part of the driver. And then, of course, we have tech and others following with the news about the Middle East.
LINDSAY: Okay, so those are the main two drivers. Do you see this movement continuing?
MOLLY: We actually don’t have an outlook on the market in terms of what will happen day to day with market moves. As fundamental value investors, we’re looking at investing in the companies in our portfolio and holding them for very long periods of time, expecting the price to eventually meet what we think they’re worth.
LINDSAY: Okay, so let’s get to SpaceX. We had a weekend to process the biggest IPO. As you mentioned on Friday, is it worth the $2 trillion valuation at the moment?
MOLLY: We don’t think so. Personally, I’m a huge fan of space and the physics and the math that have gone into what that company is pulling off. It’s really unbelievable and fantastic. My dad was actually a scientist who developed a patent for a lunar rover module driver, which was my early introduction to space fandom.
But from a value-investor lens, we really can’t get comfortable with an investment like SpaceX. It’s trading at 100 times sales. You’ve got key-person risk. It’s not even making money yet. We often look at 20-plus years of free cash flow history to determine what we’re looking for in a company in our portfolio, and unfortunately this one wouldn’t fit our appetite.
Actually, one interesting thing about the governance side of SpaceX is that people are often turned off by companies where founders can control the business, and we’re not turned off at all by these owner-operators. You’ve got companies like Berkshire Hathaway, Meta and others where insiders effectively control the company, and we’re quite happy to invest in companies that have this type of governance structure. But the risk elements here are just too big to get over.
LINDSAY: Why are you okay with that? You say from the governance side of things you’re okay with that. What is it that you like about companies that operate in that way?
MOLLY: We actually quite like what builders do with companies that they control. If you think about capital allocation and you own the company and have the control to vote the shares accordingly, you can make very good long-term investments and build things that shareholders may not like in the short run because of short-term stock price moves.
But in the long run, you’ve got this owner-operator mindset that we quite like and look for in the companies we’re investing in.
LINDSAY: You mentioned SpaceX not making money yet. I wonder how risky that is when it is apparently already losing money.
MOLLY: Yeah, we’re looking for positive free cash flow as we invest in companies. If they pull off what they’re talking about in the S-1 that we all read, it will be fantastic and we will have missed it. But there are just too many things that can go wrong that we can’t get over in a SpaceX investment.
LINDSAY: What are some value investments that are comparable to SpaceX right now?
MOLLY: I might highlight one that’s in the same general area because it’s got a robotics focus. Hyundai Motor is actually in the robotics business, and they’ve got great technology and science behind the company.
We think the robotics business, because it’s such a small part of their sales, is actually a really interesting way to find something that some analysts might not see at first glance. They’ve got a strong balance sheet, a very good buyback program and shareholder-friendly initiatives.
You think you’re buying a car company, but you’ve also got a robotics business that they acquired in 2021 through Boston Dynamics, and it’s actually a really important part of their future story.
LINDSAY: Yeah, I wanted to ask you about Hyundai’s robotics arm and how that might compare with what SpaceX is doing or planning to do in the future.
MOLLY: I’m not a robotics expert myself. I think they’ve got some really interesting robotics products. They’ve got a humanoid robot, they’ve got a dog robot, and they’ve got a number of manufacturing robots that they use in their own facilities.
When you go see a Hyundai Motor plant, apparently you can see Spot, the robot dog, walking around and helping perform functions in the manufacturing environment. I think many of these humanoid and other types of robots will continue to advance over time.
Hyundai Motor is one of the leaders in the industry, but it isn’t often talked about by the general public.
LINDSAY: Okay, we’ll leave it there. Molly Pieroni, president of Yacktman Asset Management. Really appreciate your time. Thanks for joining us.
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This BNN Bloomberg summary and transcript of the June 15, 2026 interview with Molly Pieroni are published with the assistance of AI. Original research, interview questions and added context was created by BNN Bloomberg journalists. An editor also reviewed this material before it was published to ensure its accuracy and adherence with BNN Bloomberg editorial policies and standards.
