A Little-Known Tech Stock With a Monopoly Empire

Big Tech monopolies are always front-page news...

Microsoft's court battles dominated the news in 2000. In 2020, Google's 90% search share led to a lawsuit from the Department of Justice. And in 2023, regulators killed Adobe's $20 billion plan to acquire Figma.

Washington watchdogs love chasing anything that smells like a monopoly... if the market is big enough.

But a $45 billion company in Kansas has quietly built monopolies in industries that regulators barely notice.

Garmin (GRMN) was once written off after smartphones killed the car GPS. But today, it controls everything from marine electronics to aircraft cockpits to endurance sports.

And with its latest acquisitions and record results, Garmin isn't just surviving. It's building monopolies Big Tech can't touch...

This Closed Loop Creates Investor Advantages

Monopolies mean pricing power, steady sales, and loyalty that competitors can't buy.

Google has it in search. Apple has it in phones. And Garmin has it in endurance sports...

Garmin's watches are the standard for triathlons. It makes several models built for the unique demands of these competitions – from the 17-hour Ironman cutoff to switching between biking, swimming, and running.

In fact, roughly 3 out of 4 marathon runners race with a Garmin watch on their wrists.

These watches are the go-to for serious athletes who need exact heart rate, GPS, and training data.

And Garmin just took its edge one step further...

In July, it acquired MyLaps – the company that times the Boston Marathon, Formula One races, and more than 20,000 races worldwide.

Now, Garmin controls both the watch you train with and the system that records your results. That covers the entire chain – from training to race day to official results.

It's a closed loop no competitor can copy.

For investors, the message is simple: Garmin has monopolized one of the most passionate consumer markets. And it has built an ecosystem that makes switching nearly impossible...

Dominance in Tough Markets Protects Profits and Growth

Last quarter, Garmin's fitness segment – its endurance-sports empire – grew 41% year over year to $605 million in revenue.

A lot of people thought smartphones would kill this business years ago. But here's what the skeptics missed...

When you train for a marathon, you don't want to drain your phone battery. When you bike 112 miles through the mountains, you need GPS accuracy that a phone can't deliver.

Garmin knew that in these tough races, specialists beat generalists.

Thanks to that secret, Garmin has built an incredible moat. It has three key advantages that beat the competition...

The Hardware Edge: Garmin's top endurance watch lasts 36 days on one charge. And it has solar panels that can stretch that even further. Meanwhile, the Apple Watch Ultra lasts two and a half days at most. For ultra-marathoners running 100 miles over 30-plus hours, battery life isn't a feature... It's survival.

The Data Edge: Every Garmin device connects to Garmin Connect, the company's training platform. Millions of users log billions of workouts. That creates the world's largest endurance-training database. This helps Garmin spot patterns that Apple and Google can't.

The Ecosystem Edge: Once you're in Garmin's world, leaving means giving up years of training history. It also means losing the digital link to your $400 bike computer or $1,500 smart trainer. No advanced athlete makes that decision lightly.

And the best part for investors is, Garmin's dominance in endurance sports is only one branch of several "mini-monopolies"...

In marine electronics, last year, Garmin became the exclusive supplier to Independent Boat Builders, which builds 25% of U.S. boats.

In aviation, Garmin's G1000 system is installed in more than 20,000 planes. It helps pilots track every factor they need... including flight instrumentation, navigation, weather, traffic, and engine data. Once a cockpit has this $30,000 to $50,000 setup, switching would mean replacing the entire panel.

The pattern is simple: Garmin finds markets where reliability beats style, where professionals set the standards, and where switching costs lock people in. Then, it takes over so fully that competitors don't even try to enter.

The Monopoly Investors Can Still Buy

Garmin earns an 85 Stansberry Score grade. The Stansberry Score takes metrics like free cash flow, capital efficiency, earnings quality, and valuation... and builds them into a single measure to help investors find the best businesses in the market. And right now, Garmin receives an A-plus overall grade.

But Garmin owns something more valuable than any single product. It owns an entire ecosystem in industries where "second place" doesn't exist.

Wall Street is still pricing Garmin like it's a GPS company that got lucky. But smart investors see a collection of mini-monopolies in markets that matter more than most people realize.

So the next time you see thousands of marathon runners wearing the same watch brand, remember: That's not market share...

It's a monopoly that owns both sides of the finish line.

And it's still on sale.

Good investing,

Josh Baylin

Editor's note: My colleague Eric Wade just released a presentation detailing a radical technological breakthrough he says could finally secure America's economic dominance once and for all. Eric believes this transformation will create a new wave of huge profits in the stock market. He's even giving away a free investment idea – ticker symbol and all – just for tuning in.