Here is an interview with my favorite investment writer, William Bernstein.

Skip the first two minutes and get to the interview.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1973223/10794697

Profitability is mentioned in the interview.  Profitability is now part of the Fama-French Five-Factor model and it was confirmed by a former student of mine, Robert Novy-Marx.

Fifty-four years after the first Munger/Buffett confab, academics have confirmed the intuition behind Munger’s “Quality” pillar. The researcher this time is Berkeley-trained financial economist Robert Novy-Marx, now an assistant professor at the University of Rochester and a fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Lowell