2026 Market Cap Madness Championship: Loren v. Emily

In this episode of Rule Breaker Investing, David Gardner hosts the finale to this year’s Market Cap Madness between our Motley Fool analysts, with defending champion Emily Flippen facing off against Cinderella challenger Loren Horst. From elevators to hotel loyalty programs to the strange ways we all think about “blood,” this one takes a few delightfully unexpected turns along the way.

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A full transcript is below.

This podcast was recorded on March 18, 2026.

David Gardner: Round 1 of our March Market Cap Madness two weeks ago saw Cinderella upstart Loren Horst, who's never once yet lost a Market Cap game show, unseat former world champion and Motley Fool Chief Investment Officer, Andy Cross, by a score of 6-4. Then last week, Emily Flippen took on Bill Barker in a rematch of their epic Emily Flippen 1 semifinal a year ago. Once again, Emily prevailed. Such is the madness of March. This week, it's for all the marbles. Undefeated Cinderella, Loren Horst, is back. Reigning world champion Emily Flippen is back. Here you are. You're back, too, for the March Market Cap Madness World Championships. Are you ready to get your market caps on? Let's get ready to rumble. Only on this week's Rule Breaker Investing.

Emily Flippen: It's the Rule Breaker Investing podcast with Motley Fool co-founder David Gardner.

David Gardner: Welcome back to Rule Breaker Investing. It's our 2026 March Market Cap Madness World Championship with me in studio, our Loren Horst and Emily Flippen with their jester-shaped thinking caps on to see who can out-market cap the other for the grand prize, Loren, Emily, and you. The third player to us, the most important, is you. You're playing along, too, with your spouse or partner, your kids, or your stock market-loving mates who group around the office water cooler as we get ready to crank up our Market Cap Game Show music.

Let me just briefly remind, especially our new players and listeners this week, how this game works. I'll be mentioning a stock. Neither Loren nor Emily knows what stock is coming. I'll turn to one of them to talk a bit about whatever stock they didn't know was coming, and that Fool will do their best to state a numerical range within which the market cap, the value of that company, falls. Now, the other contestant and you playing at home will simply say, I agree, meaning that's accurate. The stock's value falls inside that stated range. Or I disagree. I think it's outside that range. You simply agree or disagree. If you get it right, give yourself a plus one. That's the Market Cap Game Show. We're focused on the real market caps of real stocks, 10 stocks. Thus, a perfect score in the Market Cap Game Show would be 10. Loren Horst, Emily Flippen, congratulations to you both, and welcome.

Loren Horst: Thank you, David.

Emily Flippen: Thanks, David. Surreal to be back.

David Gardner: It is, indeed. Emily, I don't think we've ever had a repeat world champion. A lot of us are cheering you on. Loren, you self-styled yourself the Cinderella candidate, and so far, you've looked like a favorite.

Loren Horst: Yeah, usually, Cinderellas, they have a good start, and then they're knocked out in the second weekend. Let's see if we can keep the momentum going.

David Gardner: Then, Loren, let me turn to you first. Loren Horst is an investment analyst at The Motley Fool, working primarily on the team, Rule Breakers side of our flagship stock advisor service. His time at The Fool started as a temp on the member services team a decade ago, followed by a stint as a product manager working behind the scenes on many of The Motley Fool services. You can find him sharing his thoughts and encouraging newbies in our community as TMFLorenHorst. He holds a degree in economics from Allegheny College and resides in Washington, DC, with his wife, where he enjoys video games and rewatching '90s cartoons. Loren, have you rewatched anything in the last week?

Loren Horst: Catching up on “Hey, Arnold” right now.

David Gardner: Let's change gears, Loren. Did you enjoy math at school? Did you have a favorite math teacher?

Loren Horst: Did I have a favorite math teacher? I did enjoy math growing up. I would have to give a hat tip to Mrs. Rank. Had her three years in high school. She was my AP Calc teacher. She was great.

David Gardner: It sounds like you may have been in a math classroom in high school, roughly, I don't know, 15 years ago, something like that.

Loren Horst: I have a feeling I know where this is going, and if I need to age myself, I am of the TI-83 generation.

David Gardner: That's interesting, you'd mentioned that there is one constant in classrooms. Back then, I assume it's smartphones now, if kids are even allowed to have them, one object sitting on every desk that kind of defined the experience, whether you loved it, or you just tolerated it, TI.

Loren Horst: I'm TI-83.

David Gardner: TI-83. Stock number one is Texas Instruments, ticker symbol TXN, founded in 1930. The company is now one of the world's leading manufacturers of analog and embedded semiconductors used across industrial and consumer applications. But perhaps more famously, TI introduced its first handheld calculator in 1967, helping pioneer the category that later became ubiquitous in classrooms. Loren Horst, what is your stated market cap range for Texas Instruments ticker symbol TXN?

Loren Horst: This is one I have not looked at very closely, but you did mention that it's involved in semiconductors. Its business isn't entirely just high school graphing calculators, of course.

David Gardner: By the way, where are all those calculators now? Is there like some dump heap somewhere with just massive piles of calculators? I have two at home. You still get them on eBay. That probably, in some way, factors into your market cap range that you're coming up with now, Loren.

Loren Horst: Yeah, there's got to be some value there in the shelf life, but I think it is actually bigger than what my initial feelings might have been, what my instinct was. I'm going to throw out a range of $110 billion to $160 billion.

David Gardner: $110 billion to $160 billion. Emily, body language, which I read. I would say, okay, I wouldn't give myself more than five out of 10, but it looked a little bit perplexed.

Emily Flippen: Perplex is the word. I'm mostly kicking myself as somebody who grew up in North Texas, where Texas Instruments is based out of. I knew so many people whose parents or siblings worked for Texas Instruments, and I've unfortunately spent none of my professional career studying Texas Instruments. I think I'm as equally maybe dumbfounded with this question, as it seems like Loren is being, although it's possible Loren is just playing some mind games over here.

David Gardner: He said $110 billion to $160 billion, players at home. Emily Flippen, do you want to agree or disagree?

Emily Flippen: When you first said Texas Instruments, for some reason, that $60 billion-ish mark was in my head, and I just think that range that Loren gave was too large. I have no reason to base that off of other than gut instinct, so I'm going to have to disagree.

David Gardner: You're saying his range is too large, but you're going to disagree. I would think if it were too small.

Emily Flippen: It was too big of a market cap.

David Gardner: Too high up there.

Emily Flippen: There we go.

David Gardner: Emily, you are officially disagreeing.

Emily Flippen: I'm officially disagreeing.

David Gardner: Give yourself a plus one, because Loren, he had a pretty generous range. It was on the other side of that range. It was $177.50 billion. Texas Instruments is a big dog company. Founded in 1930, as I mentioned. We're just a few years away from the centennial celebration of instruments in Texas. The company didn't just popularize calculators; it actually helped invent the integrated circuit. History will show that TI engineer Jack Kilby built one of the first working microchips in the year 1958, that was a breakthrough that later earned him the Nobel Prize in physics in the year 2000. By the way, the stock was $54 a share 10 years ago this week. It's now about $194 a share. Not bad, tripling over the last 10 years for a company that big.

Emily Flippen: That feels like a very dirty point on my part because Loren's guess was much closer than my own, but I guess that's how the Market Cap Game Show goes.

Loren Horst: I think I had three points last time against Andy from this fashion, of guessing outside and then being on the wrong side.

David Gardner: Let's see if you can both keep that up, constantly getting rewarded for being on the wrong side of the fence. Let's move on to stock number 2. Emily Flippen is an advisor at The Fool, where she helps lead the stock advisor team with fundamental research on companies, particularly those that exemplify our Rule Breaker Investing traits. Outside of her work at The Fool, Emily costarred on Season 45 of “Survivor” a few years back and is presently on the celebratory Season 50 of “Survivor,” which just started this February. Emily may or may not have overcome past failed attempts to train her cats. On one of her past appearances here on the Market Cap Game Show, I shall always remember this December 2024, she got married later that afternoon. Emily, welcome back.

Emily Flippen: Thanks, David. Good to be here.

David Gardner: When you think about, you just mentioned it, Emily, growing up in Texas, what's a place or setting that really stuck with you? Why that one?

Emily Flippen: Oh, gosh, I mean, so many options here. For some reason, the first thing that comes to mind, I think for any Texan, at least the place that came to mind first when I was a kid, the rodeo, of course. My parents would always take me out to Fort Worth to see the stockyard to go to the rodeo. When you're a kid, I mean, that's just mind-boggling.

David Gardner: Loren, have you ever been to a rodeo?

Loren Horst: I don't believe I have.

David Gardner: Nor have I. I love that you've done it, Emily. Obviously, you did it as a little girl. It imprinted itself on your memory. Is this a place you went back to?

Emily Flippen: A few different times, yes, although I have to say, as an adult, I haven't been back as much as I want to. If I could convince some of my friends to go relive those memories, I would.

David Gardner: Emily, in a place like Texas, big skies, long roads, wide open land, you start to appreciate just how much space there is. I think Alaska is the largest American state. I think Texas or California, maybe Texas is second. But how important it is, even in a wide open land, to actually know where things are down to the inch.

Emily Flippen: It does seem like that would be something for which many companies could benefit from. David, I have no clue where you're going with this.

David Gardner: Stock number 2 is Trimble Incorporated. Ticker symbol TRMB. Trimble provides positioning technology and software using GPS, geospatial data to help industries like construction, agriculture, and transportation measure, map, and manage the physical world. I admit my transition from your rodeo to this company was a little lame.

Emily Flippen: You did your best.

David Gardner: Thanks. Trimble's technology, by the way, used to guide tractors in modern precision agriculture. Sometimes those things are driving themselves these days. But farmers can plant crops in perfectly straight lines with sub-inch accuracy. Emily Flippen, what is your stated market cap range for Trimble, ticker symbol TRMB?

Emily Flippen: My stated market cap range for Trimble is $7.5 to $15.7 billion.

David Gardner: $7.5 to $15.7 billion. Seems like a fairly generous range. Loren, I should mention off the air before we started, we were reflecting back on a mailbag for this podcast, an episode some months ago, where one of our mailbag writers let us know that based on statistics he's gathered over the Market Cap Game Show over the years, the percentage move is to disagree. Now, that's just on its own, objectively interesting. But since we all shared that ahead of time, I've noticed that the ranges for the market caps have gotten a little wider. Are you feeling any of this?

Loren Horst: A little bit, just because, as you said before the show, now that we're aware of it, we're going to play differently because of it. But there's also the question of this is the championship round. These are on this day, maybe the two best players of this game. Will our ranges just be more accurate, or will we end up being on the wrong side of the disagree several times?

David Gardner: We're in too deep to notice. The Heisenberg uncertainty principle, which I studied in college, reminds us that the very act of observing something like that ahead of time changes the nature of the thing that you're observing. We'll see what players at home right now and Loren think of Emily's $7.5 billion to $15.7 billion range for Trimble. Loren, are you feeling agree or are you feeling disagree?

Loren Horst: I think, and this might just come down to the numbers that Emily chose, $7.5 to $15.7. I've noticed, for myself, I tend to repeat numbers when I'm just throwing something out there, and I really don't know. I'm going to hope that she did the same, whether that was deliberate or just throwing numbers out there, and I'm going to say, disagree.

David Gardner: Players at home, Loren disagreed. What do you do? You said that. If you disagree, do not give yourself a point; you should have agreed, and this was really, really, really close. Emily said $7.5 to $15.7 billion at 2:00 PM Eastern today, March 17, Trimble Navigations Market Cap, $15.69 billion.

Emily Flippen: Nice trial.

David Gardner: .01 was the space you had on the upside to maintain agreement. It is inside that range. For this reason, Emily, you've taken a two-nothing lead.

Emily Flippen: Wow, and Loren's logic still very much applied there.

David Gardner: Trimble, by the way, founded a Trimble Navigation back in 1978, one of the early pioneers of GPS technology. But semi-autonomous huge construction and farming equipment being guided by this kind of ultra precision within a sub-inch accuracy in Texas outdoors and other places, too. Let's move on to stock number 3. Turning back to you, Loren. Loren, let me ask you about a category of stocks. Can you think of a company where the moment it comes up, investors immediately split into two camps?

Loren Horst: I can name the one that comes to mind for me, 'cause I definitely fall into one of those camps that is outside of the majority here at the Fool, and that would be Tesla.

David Gardner: Tesla. I think that is a good example. Typically, how would you label the two camps for Tesla?

Loren Horst: Those that believe that Elon Musk is a visionary and his timelines and his goals might not always be met very directly, but directionally, he has created a lot of value for a lot of shareholders over time, and they think that trend is going to continue.

David Gardner: I think that's a very good example. That's not the stock we'll be talking about, but that's a very good example. Emily, does any stock come to mind for you, kind of a battleground stock? Someone throws out the name. Might be what the company does, might be the valuation of it.

Emily Flippen: Yeah, Tesla is always the first one, but for me, the stock that I've had the most number fights about is probably Duolingo. That's the one where you're kind of on two sides of the camp. You either see a really strong ecosystem that has great customer lifetime value and low acquisition costs, or you're somebody like me who's like, everybody hates to study. Nobody's going to stick around and pay to learn languages. There's this two divide.

David Gardner: It's a video game, though. It just happens to be.

Emily Flippen: I know it's the divide you're on.

David Gardner: That's also not stock number 3, but I think this one fits in the same tradition with both Tesla and Duolingo. Stock number 3 is Palantir Technologies, ticker symbol PLTR. Founded in 2003, Palantir builds data analytics platforms used by governments and enterprises to analyze complex data and support decision-making. I think of it as one of the early companies truly to deploy AI at scale. A fun fact, of course, Lord of the Rings fans will already know this, but the company's name does come from JRR Tolkien and his Palantir. Which were the seeing stones from The Lord of the Rings reflecting this company's mission to help users see into their data. Loren Horst, what is your stated market cap range for Palantir Technologies' ticker symbol PLTR?

Loren Horst: My range is going to be $240 billion to $270 billion.

David Gardner: $240 billion to $270 billion. Now, this is a company located in the Greater Washington, DC, area. Loren, Emily, does either of you have friends who work at Palantir?

Emily Flippen: No, actually.

Loren Horst: I don't think so.

David Gardner: No. Or maybe they couldn't tell you if they did. Emily, players at home, Loren said $240 to $270. Emily, right now, you're up two to nothing by my tally. This could be a very decisive point. If you were to take a three or lead, it would start feeling difficult for Loren to come back. It's been done before, but I do feel like this is an inflection point in this game. Loren said $240 to $270. Do you want to agree, players at home or disagree with Loren's range?

Emily Flippen: I know that's a $30 billion range, which is objectively large, but it's, in my opinion, relatively narrow for the size of company that we're talking about. I unfortunately do not know Palantir at all. It is one of those companies that I similarly, to the Tesla divide, I just have not touched with a 10-foot pole because it seems like such a hot rod stock. I do think it's larger, though, and at the risk of saying that, and then, of course, getting a point, ending up being on the wrong side of that. I think I have to disagree because I think it's bigger.

David Gardner: Emily, disagree players at home? We hear you. Give Emily a plus one because this one is bigger than Loren was forecasting. Maybe Emily, your intuition was right this time. Palantir weighs in at $371.55 billion at 2:00 P.M. Tuesday, March 17. This is a very substantial company. I will say, I've always viewed it as a Rule Breaker. It was my wife who came home with an article about this company a couple of years ago, just pointing out that the two principals, one of whom is Peter Thiel, are politically extremely different from each other. Looking at that, I thought, I like that. I want more of that for America. I don't want us to all be red or blue. I'm a pink-purple person, so I like that about Palantir, and I sure have liked Palantir's performance. This stock is like a six-bagger for us in just the last couple of years. I'm very happy for this Rule Breaker. I realized some people would not want to, as Emily just said, touch Palantir with a 10-foot pole. The company, by the way, did go public in 2020. It was a direct listing. It wasn't a traditional IPO. That meant existing shareholders were selling their shares without any new ones being issued, which is unusual for a company of this size. Loren, have you ever looked at Palantir?

Loren Horst: No, that was a complete bluff, and I was hoping that you would agree with how tight of a range I was willing to give. [LAUGHTER]

David Gardner: Emily, three, Loren, nothing. Let's move on to stock number four. Emily, when you go to buy tickets for a concert these days, do you feel like you're choosing among different platforms, or does it mostly feel like there's just maybe one place that you end up?

Emily Flippen: It is a complete monopoly, and everybody hates it, I think, from the ticketers to the venues, if the venues aren't actually owned by the company that is selling the tickets themselves, of course, that experience is driven by fees and is owned by, of course, Live Nation.

David Gardner: In some industries, competition is obvious. I often think about Coke and Pepsi, Nike and Adidas, then there are others where just one company, as Emily just foreshadowed, one company becomes so dominant that even when you think you have a choice, you maybe don't? Stock number four is Live Nation Entertainment, ticker symbol LYV. Live Nation operates the world's largest live events platform, combining concert promotion. Venue operations and ticketing through its Ticketmaster brand, Fun Factor. The company promotes tens of thousands of live events each year and works with many of the biggest touring artists globally. Emily, this is obviously a company you've heard of. You're probably a customer. You may well be a researcher, or this has definitely been featured in our services because spoiler alert, I picked it nine years ago. We'll talk about that in a sec. But more importantly, what is your stated market cap range for Live Nation Entertainment, ticker symbol LYV?

Emily Flippen: My market cap range is $12-$16 billion.

David Gardner: Twelve billion to $16 billion. Emily, are you a concert-going type?

Emily Flippen: I actually do enjoy concerts when I go to them. I don't get out enough, but when I go, I enjoy it.

David Gardner: How about you, Loren? Do you get out enough?

Loren Horst: Not really. Loud noises stress me out.

David Gardner: I also don't really like to go. I think I've only ever been to one rock concert. I think I was 20 years old in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It was Phil Collins coming to play the Dean Dome. But I was just like, I like Phil Collins. It's really loud in here, though, and I do think my ears have been damaged since the age of 20. Kind of like sports. I love watching it, but I watch it from home. I am the proverbial couch potato. Sorry, Live Nation Entertainment. You're not getting my fees. Emily said $12 billion to $16 billion. Loren, what are you feeling?

Loren Horst: I think this is a relatively tight range, both in terms of it's only $4 billion. It's only about a third greater than the low point. I want to not be completely predictable in this game, but I do think I am going to disagree one more time.

David Gardner: Loren has disagreed. Before this moment, he was down three to nothing, but it's now three to one. Be sure enough, Live Nation is well outside Emily's range. It's a big company, $36.84 billion, about twice the top end of Emily's range. By the way, it's worth me mentioning, once every eight or nine Market Cap game shows, that I love being the host. Like Alex Trebek, I get to sound smart because I have all the facts. I never get anything wrong, and I don't have to play the game myself. That's the way I designed it. That's why I have such admiration for people who are brave enough to sit in front of the mic in the first place and good enough to be here for our world championships. Loren, give yourself a plus one. Emily, three, Loren, one.

I first picked Live Nation stock in March of 2017. It was at $28.75. It's been a remarkable long-term performer since it's somewhere up in the $175, I think. Big-time winner. But that growing dominance, challenged by the Department of Justice, and the company just 10 days ago or so, settled with the DOJ. There was no cash component to the settlement. There was some admission on the part of the company that it will open things up and be a little bit more sharing-oriented. But I mean, it's in favor of shareholders here. There was no ding. There was no hit to the balance sheet for Live Nation Entertainment, which continues to be, to me anyway, a company that passes my cola test, which means if they're the Coca-Cola, I can't find Pepsi in this industry, and usually that leads us to some pretty good winners.

Emily Flippen: It certainly does, and I wish I had remembered not only that dominating monopoly but also the fact that Live Nation owns a lot of these venues themselves and remembering what a strong performer was the monopoly it has over ticket sales and the venue ownership, I'm now looking back on that market cap range and thinking to myself, no way could have thought it was that small.

David Gardner: It is true, Loren, they own the venues. They then work with the acts themselves, and they're selling the tickets to the acts in their venues. It is a very strong position. Live Nation Entertainment, partly through buying Ticketmaster, has.

Loren Horst: Let me just go back to that point you made, David. I'm really familiar with companies if there's a lawsuit, if there's a settlement, maybe there's a big fine, but there's no admission of guilt. Are you saying they actually were able to flip that successfully and say, our bad, but the penalty is not?

David Gardner: I'm not a lawyer, and I don't play one on TV, and I admit I haven't deeply looked into this other than I hope for Rule Breakers members, this company continues to be a winner. I would also say, if people feel like ticket prices are just crazy, then don't buy them. That will send a message to Live Nation or the venues or the performers themselves. The way that capitalism works is, unless somebody's twisting your arm to buy something, which I hope they're not, it's your choice. If you want to pay that or not. Let's move on to stock number five. Things are heating up. Let me turn now back to Loren. Loren, with a fair amount of the white-collar working world, especially those with digital jobs these days, having made at least some transition toward remote or virtual work, have you ever walked into a coffee shop these days and seen a laptop or two?

Loren Horst: Every once in a while, but I'm one of those people working from home, and if my coffee shop is 12 steps away, that's where I'm going to end up going every day.

David Gardner: Meaning that your coffee shop is your own.

Loren Horst: Is my curio at home.

David Gardner: Yes, I understand. You're not part of what I would say, the growing army of people with laptops in large coffee venues. You're not one of those people?

Loren Horst: No, I'm one of those people that as soon as The Motley Fool started going remote in 2020, I was one of those people where I got a lot of nice shirts and a lot of nice sweatpants as well, I'm not going to go outside if I don't need to.

David Gardner: We are now in a third-party studio here at Clean Cuts in Washington, DC, so we all dressed up to come here today. No pajamas. You're both looking great. Stock number five is Starbucks Corporation, ticker symbol SBUX. Starbucks, of course, operates one of the world's most recognizable coffeehouse chains. Serving millions of customers daily while also functioning as what it famously calls the third place between home and work, except that I think it's become the second place, because for a lot of people, it is work today. Sometimes it feels like half the room, when I walk into a coffee venue, is laptops. Loren Horst, what is your stated market cap range for Starbucks Corporation Ticker symbol SBUX?

Loren Horst: I'm going to go with $93-$118 billion.

David Gardner: Ninety-three billion to $118 billion. Before I turn to Emily, I noticed that you didn't just go with round numbers there, Loren. There seems some real intent, a three and an eight.

Loren Horst: I want Emily to have to guess whether I'm extremely confident in this answer or if I'm just plucking them at random.

David Gardner: The game outside the game, the game inside the game, the metagame. Emily, have you recently taken a laptop to a coffee venue of any brand?

Emily Flippen: I do. I don't go to Starbucks, though. I much prefer my Wawa coffee, but I will occasionally hit up a Panera. I find that I can loiter at Panera for an unusually long amount of time and attract the least amount of attention.

David Gardner: Loren said $93 billion to $118 billion for players at home. Emily Flippen, do you find yourself wanting to agree or disagree with that range?

Emily Flippen: Disagreeing has been winning a lot of points this game. I will say that, but I also know some facts about Loren. One is, he is currently studying and going through the CFA program. This is somebody who likely at least reviewed some market cats for coming on the show today and also works on the Stock Advisor team, where Starbucks is a recommendation. Now, it's been a long time since we've spent time looking at Starbucks. It's been a comparative underperformer for the last few years. Understandably so, there's been a big change of shifting consumption styles away from that third place. Maybe he's not as confident in that range, but I think he is, and I think he's trying to throw me off the game. I'm going to agree.

David Gardner: You're going to agree. Players at home. Emily agreed. What do you do? Thank you. If you agree, give yourself a plus one, because Loren did give a good range, and Emily was right to lean in for the reasons she just gave, and say, I agree. Starbucks' market cap is $111.44 billion, which is solidly inside Loren's $93-$118 billion range. Loren, you know your Starbucks.

Loren Horst: I do. To be clear, I'm not traveling out into the world to go to Starbucks, but I am still drinking it every day. They're in grocery stores. They have a distribution agreement with Pepsi. In one form or another, I am still getting my Starbucks.

David Gardner: It is worth pointing out that Starbucks has been experimenting with store redesigns in light of this phenomenon that I'm talking about, pickup-only locations in some cases. Instead of being de facto co-working spaces, Starbucks has been fighting back a little bit more, so I would agree that Panera, Emily, which I recently visited, and I saw some people like Emily with their laptops, looked like they were camping out there.

Emily Flippen: Yes. I will say the Panera camping experience for coffee is very different than the Starbucks experience. Starbucks has moved a little higher-end, which is good for them. They need to be working on their rebrand. The physical coffee cups, I think when you come and you sit down, that is a big part of that experience. I think it was smart for their new CEO to move in that direction.

David Gardner: Well said. We're about to move to halftime. Before we do, I do want to mention that Starbucks may be most famous for being the stock that Tom and I named as our pick for Lisa Ling back in the day on the ABC TV show “The View.” Famously, I opened my book “Rule Breaker Investing” with that story. I use words like famously here somewhat loosely. It's debatable. Anyway, Starbucks was at $2.63 when we picked it in 1998 on “The View,” it was at $91.25, making it a 34-bagger when my book went to press, and today it's now over $98. It's a 36-bagger shout-out to Lisa Ling. Let's go to halftime. By prior consent, you both have brought a joke to entertain our listeners at halftime. In keeping with tradition, Emily, you are winning right now four to one. Therefore, you shall be telling your joke first.

Emily Flippen: I think we're all pleased by that, because to be honest, I think we know coming into this that my joke is probably going to be worse than Loren's. But David, I do think I'm taking a lesson from last week's Market Cap Game. I've learned a little bit about what types of jokes you like. I have a classic joke prepared for today.

David Gardner: Wonderful.

Emily Flippen: A man applies for a job. The interviewer says, Hey, we're looking for somebody responsible for this position. The man says, Hey, I'm your guy. The interviewer says, What makes you say that? The man says, At my last job, whenever anything went wrong, they said I was responsible.

David Gardner: That works for me.

Emily Flippen: There we go.

David Gardner: Plus one for wearing some green on St. Patrick's Day, Emily, as well.

Emily Flippen: Thank you. I actually did not realize it was St. Patrick's Day when I put this on today. But you're now the second person to tell me that, and I feel very pleased with myself.

David Gardner: Well done. Loren, I'm not saying you need to top Emily's joke. There's probably a little bit of edge there, down four to one. There's some pressure, maybe, to feel like you need to start topping Emily. Do you want to try that with your joke?

Loren Horst: I certainly can try. I know I have a big deficit to come up with here. If I'm remembered as the funny one, that's still a win for me. But I will say, hopefully, I get some bonus points because this is a St. Patrick's Day-themed joke.

David Gardner: Plus one already. Here we go.

Loren Horst: Why is Ireland the richest country in the world?

David Gardner: Why is Ireland the richest country in the world?

Loren Horst: Because its capital is always Dublin.

David Gardner: Well done. That works for me. It's going with this straight-up pun line, which arguably might be a sign of the use of a large language model to come up with that joke.

Loren Horst: I did Google it, and it looked like it was written on a message board thread in 1996.

David Gardner: It was solid, though. Its capital is always Dublin.

ADVERTISMENT: When Johan Rah received the letter on Christmas Day, 1776, he put it away to read later. Maybe he thought it was a season's greeting and wanted to save it for the fireside. But what it actually was was a warning delivered to the Hessian colonel, letting him know that General George Washington was crossing the Delaware and would soon attack his forces. The next day, when Rah lost the battle of Trenton and died from two colonial Boxing Day musket balls, the letter was found unopened in his vest pocket. As someone with 15,000 unread emails in his inbox, I feel like there's a lesson there. This is the constant, a history of getting things wrong. I'm Mark Krisler. Every episode, we look at the bad ideas, mistakes, and accidents that misshaped our world. Find us at constantpodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

David Gardner: Before we move on to stock number six, I want to just remind you March is madness, and not just on this game show. Historically, our March mailbag runs a little light, which means something wonderful for you. Your odds are being featured. Next week, go way up. Our email address is rbi@fool.com. You can also tweet us on Twitter, X, at @rbipodcast. You've probably been thinking, maybe I'll write David someday. This is someday. Send me your questions. Your investing stories, your wins, your mistakes, your frameworks, your family traditions. Your language gripes, all are welcome. The only catch is you have to actually hit "Send." Take a minute, drop me a note, help me make next week's March Mailbag. One worth remembering again, our email address, rbi@fool.com.

Let's move on to stock number six. Emily, how many companies can you think of with single-letter ticker symbols? Let me try a few on you.

Emily Flippen: First, one that comes to mind is Unity Software, which is just U.

David Gardner: Good one. How about F? Ford. Good. How about T?

Emily Flippen: T-Mobile.

David Gardner: Close. AT&T.

Emily Flippen: Sorry, TMS is T-Mobile. For the record, I do know that one.

David Gardner: No worries. How about one more? This is not the quiz, by the way, no points are being awarded here. How about V?

Emily Flippen: Visa.

David Gardner: Well done. In the end, there are only 26 possibilities, and as we'll talk about in a bit, there are a few that remain unclaimed. But when a company has a single-letter ticker, it's either probably a pretty old company or a pretty big company. Maybe just very fortunate to have grabbed one early. Emily's stock number six is Hyatt Hotels Corporation, ticker symbol.

Emily Flippen: H.

David Gardner: You got it. Hyatt is a global hospitality company operating hotels, resorts, and luxury brands around the world. Hyatt was founded, by the way, 1957. Entrepreneur Jay Pritzker purchased the original Hyatt House Motel near Los Angeles International Airport. Emily Flippen, what is your stated market cap range for Hyatt Hotels Corporation? Ticker symbol H.

Emily Flippen: I always like to, as I said in the previous show, David, compare companies I don't know, like Hyatt, versus ones that I do, like Marriott or Airbnb. But something tells me that Hyatt is much smaller, given the properties that I know both of those companies own. I'm going to give you a range of $11 to $15 billion.

David Gardner: $11 billion to $15 billion. Loren, have you recently or ever stayed at a Hyatt?

Loren Horst: I would have to guess I've stayed at some point. I've been to enough weddings.

David Gardner: Yeah.

Loren Horst: But yeah, Marriott's my preferred brand.

David Gardner: Okay. You know, it's funny. I spoke to a group of undergraduates yesterday in a Hyatt Regency in downtown Washington, DC. Even if you didn't stay there, you've probably walked through one or one of its properties in recent years. Loren, Emily said $11 billion to $15 billion. Players at home, Loren Horst. What do you think?

Loren Horst: Well, when Emily started out trying to do some comparison, that's where my mind went, as well. I'm thinking that Marriott might be closer to $70 or $80 billion. The question is, how many times larger if assuming that I'm even close on that assumption, how many times larger is Marriott than Hyatt? And this is a tight range, and that could signal that Emily knows it really well. But I'm going to go outside. I'm going to disagree, and I understand at this point, I'm up against the wall here, so I'm really hoping disagree is the way to go.

David Gardner: Alright, players at home, Loren has disagreed. What do you do? $11 billion to $15 billion Hyatt. And I'm sorry to say for Loren, he should have agreed. Players at Home, I hope you agreed, Emily, I'm thinking, Emily, you were picking numbers out of the air. You're not regularly looking at Hyatt or are you?

Emily Flippen: No, the guilt. The guilt for this point is palpable on my part. I figured it was substantially smaller than Marriott, which I agree with Loren. I know it's somewhere up closer to $100 billion. I knew it was mostly a domestic brand, so I just cut. I gave a narrow range, hoping that Loren would think that I knew it better than I was hoping that I could get him to agree with me. This feels, again, like a dirty point.

David Gardner: You say so, but that was pretty good. Hyatt is tipping the scales at $14.01 billion. Basically a $14 billion operation inside Emily's range of $11 to $15. Emily now has a commanding lead of five to one, but the game is still on, Loren. This will be an epic comeback. Before we move to stock number seven, let's just fixate, again, briefly on single-letter ticker symbol companies. I admit I haven't gone all the way through all 26 letters, but several do come to mind. For unclaimed ticker symbols. And I'm thinking, team, if I'm a new company coming public these days and no one's using I, I don't think anyone's using I. No one's using K. I think also N, people, investor relations officers, CFOs, CEOs. They're right there. They're right there. You should pick up these single-letter ticker symbols and go big with your company, if you believe in what you're doing, right, Loren?

Loren Horst: Yeah, it's like a web domain. Like, if I can get y.com, why wouldn't I?

David Gardner: You're absolutely right. This is basically Ticker squat. And, you know, you could later sell off your ticker symbols to others if you could somehow find a platform like GoDaddy that I don't think exists for the New York Stock Exchange, but that's for another day. Okay, let's move on now to stock number seven. Loren, we were just talking about Hyatt. Let's stay right there for a moment. When you think about your own travel habits, how do you approach hotels these days?

Loren Horst: I'm one of those individuals where if I'm going on a really extended vacation, I might want to have an Airbnb in the middle. Like, if I'm visiting a few nearby cities, if I have an Airbnb in the middle, that I can do laundry and take less luggage. That's nice on the way there, but I am I think, first and foremost, I'm a hotel person. It's just a nicer experience. I know exactly what I'm going to get from it.

David Gardner: Yeah, and the big hotel companies have built entire ecosystems around how we travel. They've got, like, loyalty programs. Tiers, points, upgrades. There's that great modern family episode, some of you may have seen or remember where is it Jay the dad, the wealthy dad? And he checks in the hotel, and they're on the gold level. And then it's like the family gets in the elevator and they're ready to hit the gold button, and all of a sudden somebody leans over and taps the platinum button above the gold button. And he starts going, Wait, there's another level. And by the end of the 30 minute episode, he's gotten to, like, triple platinum, and it's all completely ridiculous. But in some ways, it's making light of this company and its operations. Stock number seven is Marriott International. Ticker symbol, MAR, now you're right to be laughing because I randomize which stocks are coming every single show. And we just talked a lot about Marriott in light of Hyatt. And yet, here it is stock number seven.

Marriott, one of the largest hotel companies in the world. Operates a wide portfolio of brands across luxury, premium, and select service categories. As we heard last week, it's a company that's been holding its own quite well, thank you, in the ongoing debate with Airbnb. Emily, you were on the show last week. You mentioned Marriott briefly. This, though, friends, is a throwdown. That's right, throwdown time. Pencils out, fools. Loren and Emily will now each write down their respective best market cap range for Marriott International Ticker symbol MAR. And once they share their ranges, players at home, your job is just to pick the contestant you think made the better guess. You simply say Loren or Emily, and if you're right, you score a point. As they think of their guesses a bit more and how this works, if only one of them gets the market cap range, right? Well, of course, that correct guess wins the point, but what if both are right? Well, in that case, the contestant with the tighter range takes the point. And what if they're both wrong? I can't even remember that ever happening on this show, but supposing it did, if they both miss, then we measure proximity. Whosever nearest parameter is closest to the true market cap gets the point. We do this twice every show.

This is Throwdown number one. Let's do it. Stock seven, Marriott. I'm now going to turn back to you, Emily, first. Emily, you are up five to one. We were just talking about the stock last week, not that you're expected to remember last week. I have problems sometimes just remembering yesterday. But let me ask you to reveal what you've written down on your Post it note.

Emily Flippen: I remember last week, we quite literally searched up the market cap of Marriott because we were comparing it to Airbnb, which is one of the companies on our game show. And I have a vague recollection of where that market cap was. I'm not quite sure how it's changed in the course of the past week. I have an idea that Loren has an idea where this market cap is based off the conversation we just had. Now this is the mind game of how much has this changed in a week? How tight is Loren's range going to be? This is a stressful situation.

David Gardner: This is what you wrote down, though. I'm curious.

Emily Flippen: I wrote down $86 to $93 billion.

David Gardner: $86 to $93 billion. Loren Horst, what did you write down on your posted note for Marriott International?

Loren Horst: I'm trying to remember if I threw out a number just a few minutes ago, but I wrote down $72 to $81 billion.

David Gardner: $72 billion to $81 billion. So players at home, Emily said $86 to $93. Loren said $72 to $81. Remember, these Fools are good at this game. They know what they're doing. Loren needs this to remain relevant for the last few questions. Players at home on three, you're going to say Loren, if you think he got it right. Emily, if you think she got it right, three, two, one. And if you said, Emily, give yourself a plus one. She, I mean, there is some recency bias here that you're benefiting from. Of course, I'm sure Loren did listen to last week's show. I'm sure it's all present in his mind, as well. Marriott International's market cap $87.06 billion inside Emily's range of $86 to $93. And Loren, you weren't far off, but the problem is with the world championship, close but no cigar.

Loren Horst: Yeah, at this point, you got to make your free throws.

David Gardner: Alright, very much in keeping with March Mads. You know, I appreciate that. By the way, the Marriott story started in 1927 here in this city that we're broadcasting from today, Washington, DC. J Willard Marriott opens a small A&W root beer stand with his wife, Alice. They expanded into a chain of hot shops. Older hands and gray heads in the room may remember hot shops, PPES. Those were restaurants before eventually the company moved into lodging, and the first Marriott Hotel, by the way, opened in 1957. This company owns a lot of different hotel chains Ritz Carlton, the W, Sheraton, Weston, Courtyard by Marriott, Residence Inn, the list goes on. In fact, dozens of brands that most of us, me included, rarely recognize are just all rolled up under the same company. That's in part why Marriott is about six times the size of Hyatt Hotels Corporation. Emily, last week, we were talking about how similar the market caps between Marriott and Airbnb are.

Emily Flippen: Actually thought Marriott was even larger. I remember thinking to myself it was closer to $100 billion. But I guess the market caps of Airbnb and Marriott have actually converged a bit over the course of the past year closer than I thought. I'm happy that it was still within my range. My range was still a little on the high side, though. I'm still giving Marriott a bit more credit here.

David Gardner: And for the record, before we move on, Marriott is right around 85 billion, and Airbnb these days is 75 billion. They're both pretty comparable, totally different models, and one started much more recently than 1927. Okay, let's move on to stock number eight. Emily, when people talk about artificial intelligence today, they tend to focus on the models, ChatGPT, large language models, all of that. By the way, how actively do you use AI?

Emily Flippen: Every single day. It's an important part of our mandate here at The Fool, and I am still consider myself very much in the learning phase of AI, but I have this inherent desire to fight against change. I think it's natural. It's human in all of us. And I am now fighting against my fight against change. In order to do that, I am forcing myself to embrace the change and embrace AI, and I've learned a lot of the course of the past year.

David Gardner: Excellent. How about a tip? Maybe a go-to prompt that you use or a use of AI that we all our listeners can learn from you?

Emily Flippen: My gosh. Well, if there's anything in my life that I can expedite by using AI, I try to do it. And for me, a lot of my search, my daily search has moved to artificial intelligence first. That's my best tip is a lot of the scrolling that I was previously doing on sites like Google, I'm now asking myself, can I get my answer faster another way?

David Gardner: And these days, if you just Google things, you're probably going to get Google Gemini jumping in to give you an answer up front of the traditional list of links that Google gave us just a few years ago. Well, underneath all of these LLMs, something less glamorous exists, and that's just data. Before you can train an AI model, of course, you need a place where enormous amounts of data can live and be cleaned. That's right. We clean data these days, be accessed quickly. And a few companies have built entire businesses around doing exactly that. Stock number eight is Snowflake. Ticker symbol SNOW Snowflake provides a cloud-based data platform that allows companies to store, share and analyze massive datasets across multiple Cloud providers. The company was founded in 2012, became a closely watched software IPO in 2020. I suppose I'd say a pretty disappointing performer. Over the years, Emily Flippen, what is your stated market cap range for Snowflake Ticker symbol SNOW?

Emily Flippen: I'm going to give a range of $43 to $65 billion.

David Gardner: $43 to $65 billion. In some ways, Emily, since you've already mathematically won, you probably don't even really care, right? You're up six to one right now.

Emily Flippen: I very much care, David. You do. My pride is on.

David Gardner: And I'm glad you do, because the main point that I always make at the start and end of these shows is we're not actually playing it for each other. We're playing it for you. And there are people at home right now who have a higher score, possibly than Emily. Somebody probably has seven right now, and they're going for ten. And so some people are still in it to win it. And, Loren, I know you. I've got to know you over a decade. You're not a quitter.

Loren Horst: I'm a competitive person. I know Emily's a competitive person. We both want to win. The outcome of this matchup is determined, but the final score still is not.

David Gardner: Well said, and speaking of scores, Emily was scoring Snowflakes market cap range, $43 billion to $65 billion. Feels like a generous range. Loren, is this a stock you've looked at?

Loren Horst: It is a little bit. And it's one that I own, and I know Emily and I were slacking before today, just like, Hey, are you studying for this formally? And I'm like, there are certain companies, the ones that I own that I really don't want to get wrong. Nice. And this is one that I do own shares of. I'm really confident on the higher end of Emily's range. The problem is, I was thinking somewhere $60-$70, and her high point is right in the middle of that. It feels like a coin flip for me, but I'm thinking that it's closer to $60, and so I'm going to agree with Emily.

David Gardner: Alright, Loren has agreed, people at home, especially those who have seven points right now. Do you want to agree or disagree with Emily? Loren has agreed. Alright, you did that. If you agree, give yourself a plus one, creating some new momentum as we start moving towards Show, close nicely done, Loren. Nicely done, Emily. Yeah. Snowflake $59.89 billion. Yeah, it was real close to $60 billion as you figured out, Loren. You know, Snowflake had a really interesting IPO. It was 2020. And it was really one of the more notable technology IPOs in recent history in part because Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway, had invested in the company before it went public, and that's something that Buffett almost never does with high-growth technology-centered IPO. Snowflake, I would say, definitely got some notoriety going from that. Again, this is a stock that we've covered in our services. It has been picked in the past in Rule Breakers and many other Motley Fool services. It's a sideways player here over the last few years. I think it's even maybe a little lower than where it IPOed in 2020.

Loren Horst: Even though the business is expanding.

Emily Flippen: It certainly gotten caught up in a lot of the concern over enterprise software, especially the impact of AI, and it went public at a time when there was a lot of excitement and hype over enterprise software. And now, unfortunately, we're sitting here evaluating at a time when the narrative has very much changed.

Loren Horst: I hope I'm not misremembering how Tim Byers was framing this whenever it was recommended in Rule Breakers, but I think I remember him adding it to the scorecard with the context of This is a wonderful business. This is a business we have a lot of confidence in. The price right now is inflated, especially right after the IPO because it was if I remember correctly, he did recommend it right away just to get it on the scorecard with a little bit of hesitance on the pricing.

David Gardner: It's ironic, isn't it, that if software companies are being dinged by AI, this particular software company is there so AI companies can store and clean and access their data. And it is, I'm sure, a bigger business today than when it IPOed five years ago. It's also worth just mentioning that Snowflake uses a consumption-based pricing model. A lot of software companies have fixed subscriptions, but customers of Snowflake pay based on how much data they store and how often they query it. So that means revenue can scale directly with customer usage rather than just a seat count or licenses. A fun fact about a software platform company supporting AI data. It sounds like such a complicated business when you think their name is just Snowflake, and their ticker symbol is Snow. Let's move on to company number nine. Turning back to Loren. Let me ask you about a very specific social situation. Are you ready?

Loren Horst: I hope so.

David Gardner: You walk up to an elevator. Door opens. There's one person already inside. What's your move?

Loren Horst: Stand as far away from them as possible and immediately look at my phone. Like, maybe a head nod at most. Like, make eye contact so it's not weird. And then, like, I'm not trying to talk to anyone.

David Gardner: Okay? I don't know why I think this is so funny, but I do. We all experience this. Let's scale it up a little bit, Loren. Same elevator, but now it's five people. Maybe let's say a whole family is squeezed in there with little kids. Do your instincts change at all? Do you have a consistent approach to this situation?

Loren Horst: Yeah, if I'm getting into a full elevator, I'm probably doing generally the same thing, just trying to take up as little space as possible in the corner. And if more people come on along the way, then that's just what happens sometimes.

David Gardner: Alright, let's just go one notch higher and then we'll get to the stock. But you're boarding an elevator. It's floor three. There are 15 other people on the elevator already. You're in a skyscraper, and the somewhat slow-moving elevator is going to take more than 2 minutes to get to the top. Now, as you board, everyone else is presently silent. You have a choice where to position yourself. Are you taking the same approach, or does your elevator philosophy start to differ contextually?

Loren Horst: I'm trying to think about this. If I'm going down, I'm just going to take the stairs.

David Gardner: You're going up. You're on floor 3. There's 15 people there. They're all quiet. It could be more than two minutes.

Loren Horst: Do I have the choice to wait for another elevator?

David Gardner: You do not. This is the only elevator in the skyscraper.

Loren Horst: I'm going to take whatever space is available, and it might just be that there's enough room just for me to take one step in, and then as everyone else is facing out, I'm still facing into the middle of the elevator.

David Gardner: You're not the person who walks on and is just standing staring at everybody with your back to the door.

Loren Horst: Only if that's necessary. Because I've gotten on the Metro train sometimes, and that's the only choice that I have.

David Gardner: Stock Number 9 is Otis Worldwide, ticker symbol O-T-I-S. Otis is one of the world's leading manufacturers of elevators and escalators with millions of units installed globally and a massive service business just maintaining them. Company was founded, by the way in 1853 when Elisha Otis introduced the safety brake that made modern elevators possible. Loren Horst, what is your stated market cap range for Otis Worldwide Corporation Ticker symbol O-T-I-S?

Loren Horst: Is this one a Motley Fool recommendation?

David Gardner: I'm going to cover that. I'll mention that. That's a fair question, yes. This company only came public a few years ago, surprisingly, because it's been around more than a century. It was spun off, and it has been picked by Dividend Investor, one of The Motley Fool's popular services. This is a dividend payer. I don't think that unfairly biases you or those listening, because in the end, it all comes down to the range and agree or disagree.

Loren Horst: I'll just take any information I can get at this point. I'm going to say a range of $34-$52 billion.

David Gardner: Thirty four billion to $52 billion. Emily, have you ever been on an elevator?

Emily Flippen: Never in my life.

David Gardner: Oh, my God.

Emily Flippen: Can you believe it?

David Gardner: That is shocking. If you were to go on an elevator, would you take the same disciplined approach that Loren takes or do you have your own elevator philosophy?

Emily Flippen: Depends on my mood. I normally am a chronic introvert who will avoid people at all costs. But if you get me in the right mood, sometimes I will walk onto an elevator, and everybody is sitting there quietly, something will overcome, and I will feel the need to just make conversation. I'll be that awful person, and everyone's like, God, can the elevator just speed up a little bit? Please.

Loren Horst: Are you looking forward to overanalyzing your behavior the next five times you get on another elevator?

Emily Flippen: Exactly.

David Gardner: It is a situation we all have faced, except for Emily, apparently, until right now, she's never been on an elevator, but most of us have, and it's all contextual for me. I relate to what Emily said. Emily, I also generally would look to lighten things up a little bit, which I think is the wrong social move most of the time I'm doing it. I think we just keep our mouth shut and look at our phone with Loren. But more importantly, Loren's stated market cap range for Otis worldwide was $34 billion to $52 billion. Before you give your official answer, Emily, which way are you leaning right now?

Emily Flippen: This is actually so interesting because you mentioned this is a recommendation in Dividend Investor, and I know that team of Matthew Argersinger and Ant Schiavone, and they are really strict and diligent about their process for picking dividend payers. I'm surprised that this is such a new business to public markets. Their standards are incredibly high. That's all I'll say. I'm very interested in learning more about this company. Which is odd to say, I know nothing about it right now. Directionally, I actually feel like I agree with Loren. If I had to pick on one side of the range, I would think it would be smaller. The range that Loren gave was, in my opinion, if he's not playing me right now, he doesn't seem to know too much about it. It seems like a tight range for a company with little extra knowledge. I think I have to disagree just because of the tight range, and I do think if anything, it would probably be smaller.

David Gardner: If anything, it would probably be smaller, Emily said. What about you, players at home, especially those who have eight points right now? Do you want to agree with Loren's $34-$52 or with Emily, disagree? I'm going to say Loren made a pretty good call, and Emily called it right and gets the plus one because the market cap of Otis Worldwide corporation $32.72 billion.

Loren Horst: If we just taped a few days ago.

David Gardner: It just feels as if he's constantly getting these things mostly right, but not getting the points. Emily, you have your head in your hands a little bit. Do you feel ashamed in some way or guilty?

Emily Flippen: Yes, and I will say, not that everything has to circle back to my time on “Survivor,” but this is very much how I felt on Survivor, which was to say, looking back at my time on 45, I played a comparatively bad game. But other people kept getting sent home, and I woke up there on day 21, and all the castmates are gone, and I'm like, how did I end up here? I feel very lucky, and yes, I feel guilty. These are some dirty points I'm getting, but I will take the points nonetheless.

Loren Horst: Sometimes you get blindsided by the stock market.

David Gardner: That, too. Prices change. The stock probably was at $34.5 yesterday, but it's $32 something today, so just outside Loren's range. Emily, last week, you were presented, do you remember this? Mitsubishi Electric.

Emily Flippen: I unfortunately remember it.

David Gardner: That's also a major worldwide manufacturer of elevators. I think more of us listening to the show this week, are going to be paying attention to the brand of the elevator that we're on or the escalator than did before. I think that's a safe assumption. But, Mitsubishi Electric, do you remember the range you came up with? Bill Barker guessed. Do remember happened?

Emily Flippen: I do because I gave an incredibly large, probably the largest range I've ever given on the show, of $60-$120 billion.

David Gardner: That is correct. You said $60-$120 billion. Now, Mitsubishi Electric makes other things besides just elevators, but Bill said outside, and it was $69.89 billion. Mitsubishi clocking in at about $70 billion. Otis Worldwide, about half of that. But you asked about the dividend a little bit, and let's just lay it out there. The dividend yield for this company, so that's essentially, I might say the interest rate you get paid for just holding the stock if it just sits stable for a whole year, 2.0%. It's got a 2% dividend yield. It is a dividend here. I was thinking, first of all, I've heard Otis. I just think about I'm sure I've seen that elevator brand before, even though I never really pay attention to my elevators. Yet, for them only to have come public a few years ago, shocking. The reason is that United Technologies owned them for decades and then decided to spin the company out in 2020, the same year that Snowflake came public, and elevators.

Emily Flippen: Who knew?

David Gardner: I think the score is seven to two. Emily has clearly won the World Championship. But as I often say, right around stock number 10, whenever this happens, Loren, a lot of us tend to remember just what happens at the end of stories. You have an opportunity to really secure your place in history here if you can nail stock number 10. Are you feeling that?

Loren Horst: I'm ready to go. I'm getting started for next season, I guess, at this point.

David Gardner: Love it. You look in pretty good shape already here in March. Summer hasn't even started. Emily, I'm turning to you for stock number 10. By the process of elimination, you can already conclude, by the way, this is a throwdown. Those listening carefully, you know what's coming. Emily and Loren will be writing down their market caps, but I'm going to ask Emily a little bit of a challenging question because she's Emily. She's up for it. We're going to play a quick game of word association.

Emily Flippen: I love that.

David Gardner: I'm going to say word, and then I just want you to do two things, actually. A, give me the first words you associate with that word. Followed by B, a short anecdote or story, or reflection from your life related to this word. You game?

Emily Flippen: Sounds great.

David Gardner: Okay, here it is. Blood. I don't know why that's funny, Loren.

Emily Flippen: Clock Tower was the first that came to my mind.

David Gardner: Nice, very popular social deduction game these days, Blood in the Clock Tower.

Emily Flippen: I'm actually shocked that you made that connection. I imagine most people listening would think to themselves, Why would that be the first word?

David Gardner: Gamer alert. Game knows game.

Emily Flippen: It is a very popular social deduction board game that I do play online occasionally.

David Gardner: I'm going to say that fulfills my request, A, but B, Emily, just a short anecdote or story or reflection. Your life in blood.

Emily Flippen: My life in blood. Goodness gracious.

Loren Horst: It sounds like an art installation I don't want to go to.

David Gardner: Have you ever hurt someone?

Emily Flippen: There was a period in my life where I did. I think the most pain I've ever caused someone was I did break the arm of my cousin by jamming it in a door. Now, luckily, the blood was limited, but the pain of which I connect was relatively high.

David Gardner: Good. That definitely fufilled B. Thank you for playing. By the way, one thing that Emily is very modest about, she never talks about this, but she has a lot of experience as a debater at a national level back there in school. You were a debate club champion. I know you're ready for anything. When I throw out a word game and ask you to tell a story, it almost doesn't matter what I say, you're going to deliver.

Emily Flippen: I'm shocked that you remember that about me, David.

David Gardner: Don't be shocked. Stock number 10, it is a throwdown. Stock number 10 is Quest Diagnostics. Ticker symbol DGX. Quest Diagnostics, one of the largest providers of medical lab testing services in the US, processing millions of tests each year for patients, hospitals, and physicians. Company, by the way, founded in 1967. It plays a central role in modern health care by helping detect and monitor and diagnose disease through lab data, sometimes in the form of blood. Yes, stock number 10 is a throwdown. You know the drill Fools, pencils back out. Emily, Loren, are each right now writing down their best market cap range for Quest Diagnostics, whose ticker symbol is DGX, and puzzling that out, by the way, I think that's diagnostic DGX, diagnostics. I think that's why they went with it. Q was probably already taken when they came public. Again, if both ranges are correct, tighter range wins. If they both miss, we invoke the Barker protocol. Whoever's nearest parameter lands closest to the actual market cap takes the point. Quest Diagnostics, turning back now to you, Emily. What have you written down for Quest Diagnostics?

Emily Flippen: This is one that actually sits on the Stock Advisor scorecard. It was brought to my attention by Matt Argersinger on the Dividend team. Said, hey, I think the team is sleeping on this one. I will say, when I started to do research here, it took up a lot of my time because the intricacies of our healthcare system here in the United States and what Quest Diagnostics does, where it sits in the value change very complicated. I have an idea about the market cap directionally, now the specifics that lost on me, so my range is large, but hoping it's directionally accurate. My range is $20-$30 billion.

David Gardner: Twenty billion to $30 billion is what Emily has written down on her Post-it note. Loren, what have you written down and why?

Loren Horst: I think it's a little bit smaller. I wrote down $13.1-$17.9, thinking in the off chance we were both somewhere in the teens, I might just be a fraction of a percentage closer here.

David Gardner: This is one of those companies where I think we've all been customers, but we don't necessarily pay attention. In fact, I'm generally averting my gaze when a needle goes into my arm. I don't have real problems about blood. I would just rather not watch blood come out of me. I don't know about you.

Emily Flippen: I'm the same way. I hear I have great veins, though. Every single time I give blood or have to have my blood taken, they have no problem taking it, but if I cannot watch them, I much prefer to not watch.

David Gardner: Well, you're not allowed not to watch. Listener at home, you have to say, Emily or Loren. Emily said $20 billion to $30 billion. Loren said $13.1 billion to $17.9 billion. Again, these players are good. A lot of people. I submit to you if you're on the subway and you just buttonhole somebody because you're standing too close to them because there's an awkward elevator moment, but you're on the subway. You would just say, what's the market cap of Quest Diagnostics? I think most people would look at you funny and not even know what you're talking about. But these two people keep shooting all around the truth right near it. The market cap for quest diagnostics $21.91 billion that does fall within Emily's $20-$30 and just outside Loren's tighter disciplined mid-teens market range. Emily, you've scored yet another point, and you are our 2026 Market Cap Game Show World Champion.

Emily Flippen: Now, I do feel like I stole this to be clear. I will take the win, and honored to be here. Oh, my gosh.

David Gardner: We'll have festivities and no doubt some post-production sound effects added by Bart at the end. But let me just close the loop here on Quest Diagnostics. First, COVID-19, I think this company probably came to mind for more of us more during that period than any other, but the testing capacity nationwide. They process tens of millions of COVID tests. That highlights just how central large lab networks are to public health infrastructures. That is the story, $21.91 billion for Quest Diagnostics, Emily Flippen eight, Loren Horst, two. Another one is in the books. I believe this is the third year that we've done March Market Cap Madness.

Of course, we do the game show once a quarter, and have done that for many years now. But it was only three years ago, I started thinking, I really do love March Madness. I think it's so much fun to watch college basketball, men's or women's. This is always a special month for sports fans in the US, but I thought they need some competition. That's why we bring March Market Cap Madness to you. You play along with us every March. I want to thank both of our talented finalists. The final accounting is Emily eight, Loren two. But Loren and Emily and I know that we're not playing this game for each other, we're playing for you. How did you score?

Listeners at home, dear Fools, we hope that you outscored all of us. The purpose of the Market Cap Game Show, especially a March Market Cap Madness is to make more popular. I'm never going to say as popular as nationwide basketball tournaments or even the Super Bowl a month or two ago, but to make more popular market caps the real value of stocks in the market, that most people don't understand. We're trying to educate, to amuse, and to enrich you, and we're glad that you spent this hour with us. In fact, thanks for spending the whole month with us, the biggest fans of the March Market Cap Madness each year. I want to turn now to each of my finalists for a final line, Loren.

Loren Horst: It was a blast going up against a murderers row of Jason Moser, Andy Cross, and Emily Flippen. I congratulate the world champion, the best in the world. Because she's technically my boss, I hope this doesn't impact my next performance review.

David Gardner: Last line from you, Emily.

Emily Flippen: Well, I didn't think about that dynamic until just now, Loren, and now I feel like you might have thrown this in my favor, and I'm going to be reflecting on that. My last line is here, A, honored to be here. Super excited to defend my title now for the second year. But, David, I'm going to end with a recommendation that at some point in the future, we could have A, either March Madness Market Cap, game show, any other month or anything like that where we have no idea what we're walking into. A fake podcast episode, potentially, where we come in expecting something entirely different and then surprise us with Market Caps zero preparation.

David Gardner: I see, because part of the magic, Emily, is there is some preparation on your parts. I'm sure now, you're doing this every day anyway, so that's really the preparation.

Emily Flippen: Even if it's just keeping a diligent lookout as we're going through our daily work as we both work on Stock Advisor and other companies, keeping it out for the market cap, just an extra little look, thinking to ourselves, who reported earnings? What stocks are up or down? On any random day if you come across me on a subway, Hey, Emily. What's the market cap of DexCom?

David Gardner: A subway? Maybe an elevator. Well, thank you again to Emily Flippen and Loren Horst and Emily, congratulations. Here's your virtual crown. Here is your gaudy, oversized virtual championship ring. Here's a Foolish high five from me for the year 2026 and reigning until this time next year, you are the Market Cap Game Show World Champion. Oh, my God. Look at that Fool fetti fall. It's everywhere. Fool on.

David Gardner has positions in Berkshire Hathaway, Duolingo, Nike, Palantir Technologies, Starbucks, Tesla, and Visa. Emily Flippen, CFA has positions in Airbnb and Unity Software. Loren Horst has positions in Berkshire Hathaway, Nike, PepsiCo, Snowflake, Unity Software, and Visa. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Airbnb, Berkshire Hathaway, Duolingo, Mitsubishi Electric, Nike, Palantir Technologies, Quest Diagnostics, Snowflake, Starbucks, Tesla, Texas Instruments, Unity Software, and Visa. The Motley Fool recommends DexCom, GoDaddy, Hyatt Hotels, Live Nation Entertainment, Marriott International, Otis Worldwide, T-Mobile US, and Trimble and recommends the following options: long January 2027 $65 calls on DexCom and short January 2027 $75 calls on DexCom. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.