Munger Mode rating: 2 out of 5 — Sell. Our own rating from the research report below, on business quality first: moat durability and management, with price separating the top three.
We have spent a lifetime looking for businesses we can understand, with moats we can trust, run by people we admire, at prices that leave room for error. Church & Dwight gives us three of the four — and stumbles on the one that matters most. This is a well-operated collection of consumer brands anchored by one genuinely wonderful 180-year-old franchise (ARM & HAMMER), surrounded by an ever-rotating portfolio of acquired brands whose durability ranges from proven to fashionable to already-impaired. The company grows primarily by buying other people's brands at full prices, and the recent record — a written-off Flawless, a vitamins business sold at a loss after thirteen years, a $1 billion Waterpik flirting with impairment, offset by home runs in TheraBreath and Hero — tells us the batting average is good but not great.
Recent filings analysed: 8-K (2026-07-31), 10-Q (2026-07-31), 8-K (2026-05-05), 8-K (2026-05-01).
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