🕹️ $24.72, -1.19 (-4.59%) as of May 21, 2025 – but that dip might just be turbulence 

✈️ 💼 Can Value Investing Take Flight with CAE?

🧠 What Is CAE?

CAE Inc. isn’t building planes—it’s building pilots, simulators, and peace-of-mind for both civil aviation and defense. ✈️🪖 Whether you're a commercial flyer, a Top Gun wannabe, or somewhere in between, CAE trains you for it.

Two Engines (Business Segments):

• 🛩️ Civil Aviation: Flight crew training, cabin crew, simulators, and digital solutions for airline operations.

• 🛡️ Defense & Security: Simulation-based readiness tools for armed forces, OEMs, and public agencies. Also known as “we hope you never need this... but you will.”

💰 Why Talk About CAE Now?

Because Charles Brandes—a bona fide Benjamin Graham disciple and legend of value investing—has CAE as his #1 position at 3.6% of his portfolio! 🧙♂️📘
And this guy doesn’t chase meme stocks. His value funds beat the S&P 500 over decades. He's more tortoise than hare—but his tortoise wears a jetpack.

📊 Institutional Love

Institutions own 79.08% of CAE's float.

Top holders include:

• Caisse de Dépôt: 9.65% 💼

• Jarislowsky Fraser: 7.24% 📈

• Brandes himself: 4.43% 🧙♂️

• Vanguard: 3.86% 🦅

Short interest? A yawn-worthy 1%. Not many betting against this flyer.

🔍 For full Institutional Ownership breakdown, see here.

💵 Financial Highlights – CAE FY2025 Results

🧾 Q4 FY2025

• Revenue: $1.28B (+13% YoY)

• EPS: $0.42 (vs. -$1.58 last year 😳)

• Free Cash Flow: $289.4M

• Adjusted Order Intake: $1.3B

• Book-to-Sales Ratio: 1.05x

• Net Debt/EBITDA: Improved to 2.77x

📆 Full Year FY2025

• Revenue: $4.7B

• EPS: $1.27 (vs. -$1.02)

• Free Cash Flow: Record $813.9M

• Backlog: $20.1B 📚

• Order Intake: $7.7B

• Operating Income: $729.2M

✨ Segment Highlights

🛫 Civil Aviation

• Segment Margin: 28.6% (Q4) | 21.5% (FY)

• Adjusted Segment Income: $581.5M

• Backlog: $8.8B, includes 56 full-flight simulators 💡

🪖 Defense

• Margin: 9.2% (Q4), up from the basement

• Backlog: $11.3B, doubled in a year

• R&D-heavy, but now paying off

For more resources on CAE's financial statements,
Check this out.

📈 Valuation Snapshot

• P/E: 29.36

• Forward P/E: 26.27

🎯 Not cheap. But quality rarely is.
You're paying for recurring revenues, massive backlogs, and a recession-resilient model.

💪 Structural Strengths

• 🌀 Resilient Model: Built-in recurring revenue from regulated pilot training

• 📈 Secular Tailwinds: 280,000+ pilots needed in next 10 years

• 🌍 Defense Spending Boom: Especially across NATO & allies

• 🎯 Record Backlogs: Across civil and military

• 📉 Lower Leverage: Net debt/EBITDA improving

😎 Bonus: It’s Hard to Disrupt a Simulator

• CAE’s “mission-critical” simulation services aren’t subject to TikTok hype cycles or tariff tantrums.

• Long contracts, sticky customers, and near-monopoly in what they do. 🛡️

Interested in another investment idea?
Check our take on UnitedHealth Group.

😬 Risks

1. ☮️ Peace on Earth (unlikely, sadly, and even then...)

2. 💰 Government Budgets (but pilots still needed!)

3. 🔮 If Brandes suddenly forgets how to value a stock (doubtful)

4. 📉 General market crash (yeah, that’ll hurt everyone)

5. 💥 End of the world (diversify... into bunkers?)

🧭 Final Thoughts

✅ Profitable
✅ Growing
✅ Defensive and Civil
✅ Strong Free Cash Flow
✅ Legendary Value Investor-Approved
✅ Mission-critical

What’s not to like? Unless you're betting on a drone-only world… this might just be your portfolio’s co-pilot. ✈️

🧭 Want More Like This?

👉 Browse our Insider Purchases Hub
👉 Or explore our Turnaround Plays Section 
👉 How about our International Investing Hub?