What's a Supernova Stock? 3 Ideas for Your Watch List.

In this podcast, Motley Fool analysts David Meier, Rick Munarriz, and Tim Beyers discuss:

• Motley Fool Supernova's return with the real-money Odyssey and Phoenix portfolios.
• Why Cava, Camping World, and Warby Parker belong on your Rule Breakers watchlist.
• A preview of new tools and what to expect as the new Supernova missions lift off.

To catch full episodes of all The Motley Fool's free podcasts, check out our podcast center. When you're ready to invest, check out this top 10 list of stocks to buy.

A full transcript is below.

This podcast was recorded on Sept. 29, 2025.

Tim Beyers: What's a supernova stock? We've got three ideas. You're listening to Motley Fool Money. Welcome Fools. I'm your host, Tim Beyers, and with me are longtime teammates Rick Munarriz and David Meier. We call this your early bird, Rick. Between the three of us, we've got our full tenure qualifies for ARP.

Rick Munarriz: There's nothing wrong with being a seasoned investor or having dinner at 4:45 PM.

Tim Beyers: I'm with it. Dave, you're good with this?

David Meier: I completely agree. I have no problem being a seasoned investor in this group.

Tim Beyers: I got no problem with the early bird, either, by the way.

David Meier: I like a good early dinner.

Tim Beyers: I like the early bird. Well, look, this tenure that we all have here includes an old favorite that is returning this week. I mentioned Supernova stock at the open, and that is because Motley Fool's Supernova is returning on October 1st, and we're going to talk a little bit about what that means. But specifically, the quick teaser on this is you have three of the four captains of the two Supernova portfolios that will be coming your way this week. We are bringing you Supernova Phoenix, which Rick is co-captaining along with Emily Flippen. That is for investors either nearing retirement or in retirement. Then you have Supernova Odyssey, which is co-captained by me and Dave, in which we are going to be modeling, simulating the experience of a wage-earning investor. We think these are two incredible ways to build a portfolio. We did it for nine years previously and had a lot of success in that portfolio, and we wanted to bring it back, so it is coming back. But let's talk about this. We're going to have some reflections on what Supernova was and what may be different in the new iteration that's unveiling this week. But first, we're going to have a Supernova stock showdown, and these are going to be three stocks that are not in the initial editions of Phoenix or Odyssey, but we think they could be. There are some criteria for what would qualify as a supernova stock. Let's go through this now quickly before we get to our stocks. One of the features of Supernova, we're bringing something back called the Supernova Stock Exchange and fine-tuning it. The Supernova Stock Exchange means a stock either has to be an active recommendation in Rule Breakers, it has to be an act of recommendation from Team Rule Breakers on the Stock Advisor scorecard, or it has to have a super score of 75 or more in the soon to be released Rule Breakers database, which is built in concert with the same experts that brought you Moneyball. There's going to be a Rule Breakers version of Moneyball. We're calling that the Rule Breakers database. That will also be a source of ideas that we can bring into the Supernova universe. But, Dave, I'm going to kick it off with you. The ideas. Bring it. What do you got? Your Supernova stock.

David Meier: Yes, mine is CAVA Holdings. This is the Mediterranean-themed restaurant.

Tim Beyers: It's delicious.

David Meier: Absolutely. I wonder if they have an early bird. This company just continues to grow like gangbusters. The reason is because people like the food. That's no surprise. But I think what might surprise folks is the company is still expected to grow revenue at around 20% a year for the next three years. These restaurants that they're opening are extremely good on a return on invested capital standpoint. They target 40% cash-on-cash returns, which gives them a payback period of about two and a half years, which is pretty phenomenal in this business. What's happened over the years, as a result, is now this company is generating scale. Their operating margins are expanding. Their operating cash flow is growing. They're able to self-fund now. They don't have to go back to the equity or debt markets in order to open new restaurants, and it's all because this is a very well-run, well-led company that consumers like. I think that's three or four of the traits of a Rule Breaker right there. The other thing is, unfortunately, the stock was priced a little higher at the start of the year. Maybe it got a little carried away. But fortunately for us, who are looking to perhaps put this company into a portfolio, the multiples are much more reasonable to attractive. You have a Rule Breaker that continues to break the rules, has plenty of growth ahead of it, is very well run, and is trading at a nice price today.

Tim Beyers: It's a premium, but it feels like a more acceptable premium.

David Meier: That's a better way to say it. I like that. Acceptable premium.

Tim Beyers: It's not like it's not premium priced, but, as we've seen over the years, Rick, sometimes premiums are deserved.

Rick Munarriz: Yes, and CAVA with the stock and the food is worth the premium you're paying. You're paying up for the quality that it provides on both counts.

Tim Beyers: I have never been disappointed by a $25 bowl at CAVA, which, for me, a cheap skate is saying a lot. Rick, let's talk about what you've got going here. Delicious Rule Breaker, CAVA, ticker, CAVA. What have you got?

Rick Munarriz: I'm going to start with the same two letters, but I'm going to drive in an entirely different direction. I'm going with Camping World. Ticker symbol CWH. It's the country's leading retailer of recreational vehicles. It sells new and used motorhomes, towable RVs, and related accessories. It services the RV market. It also operates the Good SAM Club, which is the equivalent of AAA for this market. It had 201 locations across the country at the end of June. It's run by Marcus Lemonis, who some of you may recognize from CMBC's shows The Profit and now The Fixer on Fox. I didn't realize he had a new show, but now I'm going to go check it out this year. Selling big-ticket RVs is a cyclical business, and revenue started to rise again this year after back-to-back years of declines. It just sold a record number of units in its latest quarter. It posted its strongest quarterly profit in more than two years. It also pays a generous quarterly dividend, currently yielding just above 3%. Camping World shares the wealth when the going is good, sprinkling special dividends and good times. Just three years ago, it distributed five times as much in payouts as it's doing today. If the business is on the rebound, you can expect the quarterly dividend checks to get even bigger, Tim.

Tim Beyers: Sometimes we're talking Rule Breakers about dark clouds we can see through, and there have been some bumpy roads for Camping World. What do you think drives them forward? I'm really stretching the metaphor here, Rick.

Rick Munarriz: Take the wheel, the wheel, Tim. Keep going. Keep driving. There are potholes. There are storm clouds. There are detours. There are misdirections that you'll need to recalculate. But the risks they're obvious here. When interest rates and gas prices are high or when the economy is low, Camping World is going to feel like it belongs up on concrete blocks. It's not going to be an ideal investment. But I don't see it that way. To me, Camping World is built to make the most of silver linings. When the going is good, Camping World is going to use its scalability to grow its business and expand its margins. The stock today is trading for just three times what it earned in 2021, when there was a post-pandemic spike in RV sales. When the going is bad, as it was just the past two years, Camping World also sells used RVs. It could buy your RV in a pinch. More importantly, in this highly fragmented market, Camping World can buy out smaller players the way it has done for years at better prices when the industry's in a law. This is a company that wins. It's a play on the graying of America, as all of us here. We're talking about our tenure at the Fool. We're living longer. We're living happier, and we want to make the most of our lives. I think there's a long-term bullish catalyst thesis to go in favor of camping. A lot of younger people are also now skewing to RVs. It's a fun way to travel and get around. I think, again, right now, looking back, the last couple of years haven't been so hot, but again, that dividend that's 3% plus, and it should grow as a company bounces back. I think it's an interesting play here, especially coming from the Phoenix mindset where I'm in, which is we look for stocks that offer growth, but there's also a little dividend, not necessarily a component of every Phoenix stock, but also helps with our portfolio.

Tim Beyers: I love getting paid for holding stocks. But, you're right about this. What's interesting, I don't know if you've ever seen this, Dave, but I have noticed this. If you look around, just no matter where you are, but look in a suburban area, a pro tip, you are likely to see a Camping World. You have to look for it. They're hidden a little bit, but if you look, you're going to see it.

David Meier: Down in my neck of the woods, there are a lot of campers, and there is Camping World down near the beach where I live in South Carolina. I totally see it. It is amazing. This RV trend has been going on for probably a little bit more than a decade now, and it's still something people want. It's awesome. I love it.

Tim Beyers: It'll be interesting to see if you're right about this if Gen Z starts picking this up a little bit. That would be a significant catalyst for this business. But let's move on to mine. My Supernova stock idea is Warby Parker, which you may know, as the company that started selling eyewear online and has since moved on to building out about 250 stores around the US in several US states. They're targeting about 1,000 of these stores in the short term. It could be much more than that. To be fair, I think there are 40,000 different optometry locations around the United States. They are nowhere near saturating their market, but they have a really interesting brand, and this started with a fairly simple idea. The co-founders of Warby Parker. They thought that manufacturing eyeglasses was way too expensive. They decided to disrupt the supply chain and figure out how to squeeze cost out of making glasses far cheaper than they had been. With that simple idea, they started with an e-commerce model, and you may remember this. You may have even done this during the pandemic, where you were looking into your camera. You know, the camera was giving you your eye prescription that you could go in and order through Warby Parker, and they'd send you five pairs of glasses. You could try on five different pairs. This was a very interesting model. But ultimately, what Warby Parker decided is in order to really scale, they had to get stores where they could get optometrists in stores. The business of actually serving somebody like me, who has worn glasses since four years old, really wants to see an optometrist. That is now built into these stores, and these stores are incredibly profitable, 35% roughly four-wall EBITDA margins. They've held that steady for a couple of years now. In the most recent quarter, even when you strip out stock-based compensation, you strip out all the CapEx, they are generating organic cash flow. There's some risk here. We can talk about this.

Rick Munarriz: Then let's talk about the risk. I think it's important we look at both sides. There's a lot of cool things happening. I bought my first two pairs of Warby Parker last year when we recommended it. I just said, hey, I'm going to eat my own cooking or I guess wear my own cooking.

Tim Beyers: Wearing Cooking sounds painful, Rick. I'm not going to lie.

Rick Munarriz: It does, Tim. But to the point, there are risks here. Again, the company's doing a lot of cool things with Google and the AI front, opening in stores. But are there risks here, like a lack of focus or any other thing that you see that could hold the company back?

Tim Beyers: The online discounters are significant, and there is an online discounter, which happens to be very good and is a bare-knuckles competitor called Zenni. You may have seen this. Like, if you're going around on different websites, you may have seen ads from Zenni, and Zenni makes good pairs of glasses. They do deliver quality. Arguably, Rick, I would say, what Warby Parker was for online eyewear, that is where Zenni is now. I think it's fair to say they are at least the equivalent of Warby Parker in the online eyewear segment, but the good news here is that while Zenni may be disrupting Warby Parker's e-commerce business, Warby Parker is massively disrupting the mall optometrist. I have gone in to the local mall here. I don't know if either of you have seen this and gone and looked in the Luxottica, and it is barren, that just people are not going in there.

David Meier: That's pretty amazing because I don't think a lot of people know this. But Luxottica absolutely owns this market. They're huge. I didn't realize that until there was an expose about them. It was three or four years ago, I think. The fact that Warby Parker has been able to not only enter the market via the online channel, but to extend into Luxottica's in-store channel is phenomenal. That is a feat considering Luxottica literally owns every piece of the supply chain for glasses.

Tim Beyers: This is a great point, Dave. This is so when we're talking about Supernova stocks, when we're talking about Rule Breakers, we're very often talking about meaningful disruption. Luxottica's strength is also its weakness here for Warby.

David Meier: It is now.

Tim Beyers: It is, because they own a supply chain that is an expensive, calcified supply chain, and Warby Parker has come in, dismantled the traditional supply chain, and offered an alternative that is highly rule-breaking. I own these shares. I've been buying. I really like this company. But we're going to move on here. We want to know what you think. What is your idea of a great Supernova stock? Leave a comment for us. Up next, we're going to have some Supernova reflections.

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Tim Beyers: Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. For those who may not know or remember, Supernova was and will be again, a suite of real money portfolios built from stocks with Rule Breaker characteristics as defined by Fool co-founder and chief Rule Breaker David Gardner. We want to take a look back to look ahead because we're bringing back Supernova. Rick, when I go to you first, I'm just going to tee you up by saying it is going to be bringing back a bit of what we did, but it will also be a little bit different. What do you remember about those Halcyon days of Phoenix 1 and Phoenix 2? What are you looking forward to with the new Phoenix?

Rick Munarriz: I have nothing but great memories of Phoenix 1 and Phoenix 2. This is 13 years ago. Both the Phoenix 1 and the Phoenix 2 were able to crush the market with the basket of stocks that David Gardner provided for us. Since then, we've grown that basket. That's what I'm looking forward to the most. Not only did I have this great experience. I have a great team. For the five of us we're part of the original Supernova team. Emily Flippen, who's my co-captain, came in toward the late of the Supernova tenure, but obviously, you all should probably know her. Jim Mueller was part of the Phoenix 1 team and took over Phoenix 1 when I went to run Phoenix 2. Matt Argersinger was also part of other missions and led some. Then Alicia Alfiere from our Rule Breakers team wasn't around during the initial Supernova days, but clearly a Rule Breaker and supernova investor at the core. It's going to be an amazing group. But I'm looking forward to all the new tools, all the new devices we have, because our pool of stocks is obviously a little larger now. We also have the Rule Breaker database, which gives a totally new pool to explore. I enjoy this. I enjoyed the fact that we were playing with real money, which was nerve-racking at the beginning. Oh, my God, this is coming out of the Motley Fool balance sheet. What if I mess this up? Will I ever be able to show my face again? I'd like to think, even if we had lost to the market, I would still be around. But I do think that this is a thing where there's just real simulation, and you're seeing this happen. In the Phoenix case, whether you are a retiree or near retiree, or even someone that just came across an inheritance or has a lot of money to spend. It has a lot of applications, Phoenix will. I think it's going to be very exciting. I don't use the word love often, but I love my team. I'm very excited about what's going to happen here.

Tim Beyers: Dave, give me your reflections here. What can you remember about the old Supernova? What are you looking forward to?

David Meier: How do I follow that?

Tim Beyers: I don't know.

David Meier: That was the most impassioned.

Tim Beyers: Just be yourself, Dave.

David Meier: Yes. I was not on the Odyssey or Phoenix team. I was actually heading up the Explorer mission, which was the Battle Royale. It was great to interact not only with the teammates that we had to figure out, what theme were we going to bring? What stocks do we think represent this team? But it was also incredible to engage with the members because members voted. That's one thing that I'm really looking forward to, because the other thing that happened was I actually left the publishing side of the business and went down to our asset management side. I brought Rule Breaker investing down there, which was really cool. I learned a lot. The other thing I'm looking forward to is taking those experiences and bringing them back up to share with you things that I've learned, and obviously to share with members things that I've learned. But I could not agree more with what Rick said in terms of one, the universe itself is bigger. That's one of the awesome things about Rule Breaker investing is the innovation never stops. The disruptive companies keep coming to the marketplace, so there's opportunities there. But the fact that we can now use the Rule Breaker database as a way to source completely unique potentially investments for the portfolios, that's going to be a lot of fun, too, because we have a pretty good team that we really like and are looking forward to working with as well.

Tim Beyers: I'll just mention that you and I get to work together on this. I'll hearken back in a minute on Odyssey 1 and Odyssey 2. But just looking ahead here, Dave and I have San Mateo, Anders Bylund, and Keith Spikes for the Odyssey team, and Rick and I have known Anders for 20 years. Dave knows Anders. If you don't know Keith, you're going to really like hearing from Keith because he's got some real biotech expertise. You've probably seen him on Fool 24, talking biotech with Brian Orelli. But he's also a really good writer. He's been a contributor to me on Cloud Disruptors. He's just such a solid guy. Of course, Sanmeet, we've worked with Sanmeet since he's joined as a full timer, really good analyst. I think, like Rick said, the Phoenix team is phenomenal. I'm real happy with our Odyssey team. It was like that with Odyssey 1 and Odyssey 2. We had a very eclectic group of people, and we were selecting from what we call the Supernova Stock Exchange to build something that we thought was durable, built from the world's best businesses that we could find. We get to do something magnificent, I think, which is when you're dealing with a real money portfolio, there is this element of if we give you a scorecard, we're handing you some fish. We think this is worth having. Put it to use. But when you're building a portfolio and modeling a portfolio for members, I think we get to more actively teach Fools to fish, and I think that is so exciting. I love that. It's my favorite part of the job. Now that we're bringing that back, I can't wait to do that because we're going to be talking capital allocation. I know these sound boring, managing risk, capital allocation, but trust me in the path of building long-term, durable wealth, experiencing that together in a way that is meaningful, and we're going to demystify it. That's just going to make life so much better. To me, I guess I'm a nerd on this, but I know Dave likes this, too, and I know Rick likes it, too, because we all do this job. That is fun for us. Yes. That's good stuff. I'm very much looking forward to that. Those are our reflections. Up next, a bit more on how to get involved with Supernova, when we open it up on October 1st.

Finally, we're going to close out here because this is a longer episode. We wanted to give a lot of space to Supernova coming back on October 1st. I'm going to end with a short plug here. If you want to learn more about Motley Fool Supernova and what's coming on October 1st, we have a special URL for you, and this will be in the show notes. It is called supernovaisback.fool.com. A quick word on David Gardner and his book here. His book is Rule Breaker Investing. How to pick the best stocks of the future and build lasting wealth. Please pick up that book if you haven't done so yet. It's a great read, and it really gives some deep insights into what we're doing with Rule Breaker Investing and the principles behind all of the stocks that we're going to be choosing from that are in the Supernova Stock Exchange. Go ahead, Dave.

David Meier: We've all learned at the feet of David Gardner, and we've become better investors for it. I'm about halfway through mine, and I'm still learning things from him.

Tim Beyers: Twenty years in, and it's still happening. The learning just never stops. David will be serving in a strategic advisory capacity for the Motley Fool's Supernova Service. Remember, this closed in 2021, and the portfolio average at that time of closing was 21.8% annually over nine years. It's really something special. Thank you for being here. Thanks to Dave and to Rick. As always, people on the program have interest in the stocks they talk about, and the Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against. Don't buy or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. All personal finance content follows Motley Fool editorial standards and is not approved by advertisers. Advertisements are sponsored content and provided for informational purposes only. To see our full advertising disclosure, please check out our show notes. Thanks so much to David Meier, Rick Munarriz, for our engineer, Bart Shannon, and our producer, Anand Chokkavelu. I'm Tim Beyers. We appreciate you being here, Fools. Check out Motley Fools Supernova. Remember the URL here to learn more is supernovaisback.fool.com. Fool on, everyone. We'll see you again tomorrow.