The Post-Stahl Era: Continuity, Strategic Assets, and a Fortress Balance Sheet
Losing its legendary founder hasn't shaken FRMO's plan: compound strategic stakes like TPL and MIAX, push Winland to control, and turn water into optionality.
FRMO · Earnings Call · 2026-04-25
Leadership transition on a solid footing
On April 25, FRMO held its fiscal Q3 2026 call, the first since the passing of Murray Stahl. The tone was grief-stricken but resolute. Peter Doyle opened by calling Stahl "an intellectual giant" and recalled meeting him in 1985: “I had bumped into the equivalent of Ben Graham.” — Peter Doyle, Executive · 2026-04-25 Steven Bregman, the other co-CEO, spent much of the prepared remarks answering the obvious question—are we okay? His response: “We're solid. That means we have time to do things as we judge them to be the right way.” — Steven Bregman, Executive · 2026-04-25 That message of patience and independence is the real news of the quarter.
Strategic assets: the water and land trade
The portfolio is anchored by Texas Pacific Land Corp (TPL), still the largest holding, which rose 82% in the fiscal third quarter. Bregman was eager to explain why the market should not simply mark TPL at a multiple of current earnings: the company sits on the Permian Basin's water, and water is becoming the true limiting factor for AI data centers. “water is the fastest-growing part of their business. And at some point, it will surpass the revenues from natural gas and oil.” — Steven Bregman, Executive · 2026-04-25 This is not a new thesis; Murray had made it on prior calls, but hearing it from Bregman reinforces that the intellectual property outlives its author. The call also touched on MIAX, the exchange stake that IPO'd in August 2025, and the goal to gain board representation ("we are exploring all opportunities," per Doyle).
That's a really, really fine result. And we did it without leverage.
—Bregman on the 20% annualized book value growth since 2000.
Crypto mining: shifting to indirect accumulation
FRMO's path to operating income runs through Winland, the sensor/electronics and crypto mining vehicle in which FRMO now owns ~47%. The plan is to take stake above 50% "in an orderly fashion" (Bregman), and Doyle described a new arbitrage: “But they had another coin where we could probably mine that coin, sell off a good chunk of it to buy Bitcoin and still fund the operations of buying the machines to mine that coin.” — Peter Doyle, Executive · 2026-04-25 This is the "indirect mining" approach Murray first detailed on the April 2025 call: “So in theory, and at least historically in practice, we've been able to grow our Bitcoin per share at a higher rate via the indirect mining effort.” — Murray Stahl, Chairman and CEO · 2025-04-22 The cryptocurrency business is down sharply this year—Bitcoin fell 26% in the quarter—but the team frames it as cyclicality, not strategic failure.
Balance sheet as a moat
A recurring theme was the fortress-like balance sheet. FRMO is now truly debt-free after selling its land and building to Synteq Digital, and it holds over $45 million in cash. Even the short book—path-dependent ETFs—is a capital-light income stream. Bregman noted that cumulative short proceeds exceeded $9 million. The company is also working on a more shareholder-friendly website, a nod to a long-standing shareholder complaint.
The question of the stock price discount to book value stalked the call, but both executives closed by pointing to the 20.5% annualized compounding and citing Warren Buffett's 1964–1982 period: “Returns come in a very episodic fashion.” — Peter Doyle, Executive · 2026-04-25
In a market chasing water user themes and Permian Basin optionality, FRMO's stakes in TPL and MIAX look increasingly strategic assets. The cryptocurrency business remains a deliberate, if volatile, growth engine.
The passing of Stahl is a genuine transition, but this call confirmed that the playbook—patient, research-driven, underleveraged—is now in the hands of a team that was literally trained in a Burger King four decades ago. Investors looking for a pure expression of the water/AI-data-center trade and a controlling interest in an indirect Bitcoin miner could find FRMO compelling, even if its OTC listing and tiny float limit the audience.