What You Must Know About Compass Diversified Holdings LLC’s (NYSE:CODI) Major Investors

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In this article, I will take a quick look at Compass Diversified Holdings LLC’s (NYSE:CODI) recent ownership structure – an unconventional investing subject, but an important one. When it comes to ownership structure of a company, the impact has been observed in both the long-and short-term performance of shares. Since the effect of an active institutional investor with a similar ownership as a passive pension-fund can be vastly different on a company’s corporate governance and accountability of shareholders, investors should take a closer look at CODI’s shareholder registry.

View our latest analysis for Compass Diversified Holdings

NYSE:CODI Ownership_summary May 2nd 18
NYSE:CODI Ownership_summary May 2nd 18

Institutional Ownership

Institutions account for 36.65% of CODI’s outstanding shares, a significant enough holding to move stock prices if they start buying and selling in large quantities, especially when there are relatively small amounts of shares available on the market to trade. These moves, at least in the short-term, are generally observed in an institutional ownership mix comprising of active stock pickers, in particular levered hedge funds, which can cause large price swings. In the case of CODI, investors need not worry about such volatility considering active hedge funds don’t have a significant stake. However, we should dig deeper into CODI’s ownership structure and find out how other key ownership classes can affect its investment profile.

Insider Ownership

Insiders form another group of important ownership types as they manage the company’s operations and decide the best use of capital. Insider ownership has been linked to better alignment between management and shareholders. Although individuals in CODI hold only a 3.52% stake, it’s a good sign for shareholders as the company’s executives and directors have their incentives directly linked to the company’s performance. I will also like to check what insiders have been doing recently with their holdings. Insider buying may be a sign of upbeat future expectations, however, selling doesn’t necessarily mean the opposite as insiders may be motivated by their personal financial needs.

NYSE:CODI Insider_trading May 2nd 18
NYSE:CODI Insider_trading May 2nd 18

General Public Ownership

A substantial ownership of 46.60% in CODI is held by the general public. This size of ownership gives retail investors collective power in deciding on major policy decisions such as executive compensation, appointment of directors and acquisitions of businesses. This level of ownership gives retail investors the power to sway key policy decisions such as board composition, executive compensation, and potential acquisitions. This is a positive sign for an investor who wants to be involved in key decision-making of the company.

Private Company Ownership

Another group of owners that a potential investor in CODI should consider are private companies, with a stake of 13.24%. While they invest more often due to strategic interests, an investment can also be driven by capital gains through share price appreciation. This kind of ownership, if predominantly strategic, can give these companies a significant power to affect CODI’s business strategy. Thus, potential investors should look into these business relations and check how it can impact long-term shareholder returns.

Next Steps:

The company’s high institutional ownership makes margin of safety a very important consideration to existing investors since long bull and bear trends often emerge when these big-ticket investors see a change in long-term potential of the company. This will enable shareholders to comfortably invest in the company while avoid getting trapped in a sustained sell-off that is often observed in stocks with this level of institutional participation. However, ownership structure should not be the only focus of your research when constructing an investment thesis around CODI. Instead, you should be evaluating company-specific factors such as Compass Diversified Holdings’s past track record and financial health. I urge you to complete your research by taking a look at the following:

  1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for CODI’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for CODI’s outlook.

  2. Past Track Record: Has CODI been consistently performing well irrespective of the ups and downs in the market? Go into more detail in the past performance analysis and take a look at the free visual representations of CODI’s historicals for more clarity.

  3. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.
To help readers see pass the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price sensitive company announcements.

The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned.

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