Durable Capital Exits Descartes: A Stock’s Fate?

Durable Capital Partners LP, a fund that once owned 1.7% of its reportable assets in Descartes Systems, has now sold every last share. The transaction, worth $229 million, was filed on Nov. 14, 2025. Investors, of course, are wondering: What does this mean for the rest of us?

What happened

Durable Capital Partners exited Descartes Systems in Q3 2025. The fund, which had held the stock for five years, now has 0% ownership. The market, as always, reacts with the urgency of a man who just remembered he forgot to buy milk.

What else to know

Descartes was once 1.7% of Durable’s AUM. Now, it’s zero. The fund’s top holdings? RBC Bearings, Coupang, Shopify, Colliers International, and XPO. All fine names. All, perhaps, safer bets than a company whose stock has fallen 23% year-over-year.

Descartes Systems Group, as of Dec. 4, 2025, trades at $94.87. That’s a 36-point underperformance against the S&P 500. A company that once doubled the S&P’s returns since 2010 is now a shadow of its former self. So it goes.

Company overview

Metric	Value
Price (as of market close 2025-12-4)	$94.87
Market Capitalization	$8.2 billion
Revenue (TTM)	$704 million
Net Income (TTM)	$156 million

Company snapshot

Descartes Systems: A provider of cloud-based logistics solutions. Think of it as the Swiss Army knife of supply chains-routing, customs compliance, warehouse management. It sells subscriptions, not hardware. It operates in a world where “omnichannel” is a buzzword and “legacy systems” are relics.

The company’s SaaS model is modular, scalable. Its clients include manufacturers, retailers, and logistics providers. In other words, the people who make the global economy tick. But the market has grown tired of ticking clocks.

Foolish take

Durable Capital’s exit is a signal, not a death knell. The fund held Descartes for five years, during which the stock matched the S&P 500. Now, it’s gone. But here’s the rub: Descartes is a 15-bagger since 2010. That’s not a typo. It’s a miracle.

Yes, the stock is down 23% this year. Yes, it trades at 36 times free cash flow. But over the past decade, it’s grown revenue 14% annually. It’s a leader in a fragmented industry. It’s bought companies, stitched them together, and sold them as a coherent whole. A rare talent.

Investors who see only the 36x multiple may miss the forest for the trees. The company’s solutions are becoming essential. Legacy systems are being replaced by cloud-based tools. And Descartes is in the right corner of that story.

But let’s not pretend this is easy. The market is a fickle beast. It rewards momentum, not patience. Durable Capital may have taken profits. Others may see this as a buying opportunity. Or a trap. The future, as always, is uncertain. So it goes.

Glossary

Exited position: When an investor sells all shares of a holding. It’s the investment equivalent of burning your bridges.

Portfolio shift: A significant change in asset allocation. Often happens when a fund outgrows its favorite stock.

Assets under management (AUM): The total value of a fund’s investments. A number that grows when the market cooperates.

Stake: Ownership in a company. A stake in Descartes is now a smaller number.

Cloud-based: Software delivered over the internet. Less boxes to dust, more data to parse.

SaaS: Software-as-a-Service. A subscription model that investors love to overpay for.

TTM: Twelve months trailing. A metric that tells you what’s happened, not what will.

Investing is a game of probabilities. Sometimes, the dice are loaded. Other times, they’re just indifferent. Descartes is a company with a good hand. Whether it plays it well is another matter. But then, isn’t everything? 🌟

2025-12-05 19:12