Ingles Markets, Incorporated (INGR)

I’ve had a lot of success investing in businesses run by a controlling shareholder.

These are normally sleepy companies in sleepy industries trading at low valuations.

These businesses tend to have clean balance sheets and low debt.

They also tend to trade at a discount to peers because the market thinks the business is too boring or value trappy.

The grandson of the founder will do a better job running the business than some outsider. He won’t need to take wild swings or moonshots trying to push his comp up. He’s got downside. This is his inheritance on the line.

If the family has done right by their shareholders, you’ll do quite well over the long run.

I wrote up Ingles in April 2025. The stock is up 40% since then. I did Moro Corp. in June 2025. It got bought out at a 115% premium 7 months later.

It doesn’t always go with this way, but those were both low downside stocks that ended up outperforming… by a lot.

And I simply put my money up next to the controlling family when the price got right.