Buy Hold Sell: 3 market leaders (and 2 big buys)

In uncertain markets, investors often gravitate towards companies that dominate their industries. 

Market leaders typically benefit from strong competitive advantages, pricing power and scale, making them well placed to navigate economic slowdowns and emerge even stronger when conditions improve.

But not every market leader deserves its reputation. Some continue to compound earnings year after year, while others are disrupted by new competitors or changing consumer behaviour.

In this episode of Buy Hold Sell, Livewire's Tom Stelzer is joined by IML's Daniel Moore and Wilson Asset Management's Hailey Kim to assess three well-known market leaders in the communications sector and decide whether they're worth buying, holding or selling today.

They also each bring along a favourite stock of their own: one an entertainment business with high-quality assets, the other a beaten-down market leader forecast to deliver double-digit earnings growth.

Please note this episode was filmed on 29 July 2026. 

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Episode Summary

We're trialling something new for Buy Hold Sell this week. 

Here are all the guest calls along with a brief summary of their verdict and select quotes. Let us know what you think about the new format in the comments section. 

If you want the full episode transcript, it's still available as a download at the bottom of the page. 

1 - Telstra Group (ASX: TLS)

Hailey Kim's rating: SELL

Her verdict: A great business, but questions on pricing and defensibility.

What she said: "The bigger question for us is as the direct-to-mobile satellite and the potential regulatory change around the universal coverage, whether that actually narrows Telstra's coverage mode. And that could really weigh on Telstra's pricing power."

"Do we think that Telstra is not a great business? No, we don't think so. However, we just want to see some evidence of Telstra being able to hold the pricing power and we are a little bit watchful where the market's actually willing to put the same premium on a mode that might not be as unique in the near future."

Daniel Moore's rating: SELL

His verdict: A punchy valuation and lack of long-term strategy.

What he said: "We've seen prices rise, costs get cut and assets sold. And so we have seen returns improve. There's probably another year or so to go, but we think that investment case is pretty mature and really reflected in the multiple of the company now in the low-20 times. Pretty punchy for a telco. And we just think long-term, raising prices, cutting costs is not a long-term strategy."

2 - CAR Group (ASX: CAR)

Daniel Moore's rating: BUY

His verdict: Attractive value and a solid defence against AI 

What he said: "We really think it's an opportunity - a massive derating in the valuation of the company. It's trading in the low 20 times. And we really think the AI disruption risk is much more balanced in the case of Carsales."

"Carsales has fantastic data on what consumers want to buy, what price point they're willing to pay and what make, which the LLMs can't compete with. So we think they're well-placed trading where it is. It's almost a 4% yield, growing double digits." 

Hailey Kim's rating: HOLD

Her verdict: A resilient business but waiting on earnings growth

What she said: "CAR is a great business - they've got the biggest position in Australia and are really growing international franchises across the US, Brazil, and Korea as well. But I guess the reason why we are not adding at this level is more about the expectations than fundamentals."

"At around 20 times forward earnings, it's by no means expensive, but we just want to see some signs of earnings re-accelerating before we get a bit more constructive."

3 - Seek Ltd (ASX: SEK)

Hailey Kim's rating: SELL

Her verdict: Soft job numbers and a weak long-term moat 

What she said: "The earnings setup is quite challenging. Seek’s come up with their June job listing numbers, which are quite soft, and that's really telling us the hiring demand is also quite cautious. And when you think about the June job data, the headline employment numbers are holding up okay, but when you actually look at the picture underneath, it's a lot less constructive."

"Longer term, when we think about Seek’s business, we think the moat around the business is a little bit less differentiated compared to the other classifieds."

Daniel Moore's rating: HOLD

His verdict: Weak network effects long-term and cyclical issues short-term

What he said: "It is down substantially, but there is still a lot of uncertainty around the cycle, where we are today. I don't think we can say we're at the bottom of the cycle when unemployment's roughly four and a half per cent."

"I think there's a bit of a risk that employers in the future could just, rather than advertise through Seek, could just go direct to people through LinkedIn. So in the long term, it's really hard to be confident."

4 - EVT Ltd (ASX: EVT) - Daniel's pick

Daniel Moore's rating: BUY

His verdict: Strong property assets mean you're getting its businesses for free

What he said: "Really, the investment case for event hospitality is its property portfolio. They've got over $2 billion of property on their balance sheet across over 20 hotels."

"You can justify the entire market cap just with that property portfolio. And we think the actual outlook for value, particularly the hotels, is improving over time because with inflation, replacement cost has gone up substantially and there's very little new supply coming to market."

"Then you're getting all the operating businesses for free, whether that's cinemas, Thredbo, and their management hotel business, which we think has really good growth."

5 - REA Group (ASX: REA) - Hailey's pick

Hailey Kim's rating: BUY

Her verdict: A clear market leader with strong pricing power

What she said: "When it comes to the defensibility of that classified mode, we think that really comes down to eyeball or audience relationships. So when you think about REA's business, they have twice their audience of its next competitor, four times the engagement."

"At 27 times forward earnings, you've got double-digit earnings growth, strong balance with buybacks ongoing, and really strong return on capital as well. And also the strongest competitive position across the classified names in Australia."