Why Cherokee Inc’s (NASDAQ:CHKE) Ownership Structure Is Important

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In this article, I will take a quick look at Cherokee Inc’s (NASDAQ:CHKE) recent ownership structure – an unconventional investing subject, but an important one. Ownership structure of a company has been found to affect share performance over time. Differences in ownership structure of companies can have a profound effect on how management’s incentives are aligned with shareholder returns, which is why we’ll take a moment to analyse CHKE’s shareholder registry.

See our latest analysis for Cherokee

NasdaqGS:CHKE Ownership_summary May 25th 18
NasdaqGS:CHKE Ownership_summary May 25th 18

Institutional Ownership

With an institutional ownership of 48.92%, CHKE can face volatile stock price movements if institutions execute block trades on the open market, more so, when there are relatively small amounts of shares available on the market to trade Although CHKE has a high institutional ownership, such stock moves, in the short-term, are more commonly linked to a particular type of active institutional investors – hedge funds. With hedge funds holding a 11.82% stake in the company, its share price can experience heightened volatility. We should dig deeper into the company’s ownership structure to find how the rest of its ownership structure can impact its investment case.

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. 8.50% ownership makes insiders an important shareholder group. This level of ownership indicates closely aligned interests of shareholders and management. It may be interesting to see what insiders have been doing with their shares lately. Insiders buying shares can be a positive indicator of future performance, but a selling decision can be simply driven by personal financial needs.

NasdaqGS:CHKE Insider_trading May 25th 18
NasdaqGS:CHKE Insider_trading May 25th 18

General Public Ownership

A big stake of 25.13% in CHKE is held by the general public. With this size of ownership, retail investors can collectively play a role in major company policies that affect shareholders returns, including executive remuneration and the appointment of directors. They can also exercise the power to decline an acquisition or merger that may not improve profitability.

Private Company Ownership

Another important group of owners for potential investors in CHKE are private companies that hold a stake of 5.63% in CHKE. These are companies that are mainly invested due to their strategic interests or are incentivized by reaping capital gains on investments their shareholdings. This kind of ownership, if predominantly strategic, can give these companies a significant power to affect CHKE’s business strategy. Thus, potential investors should look into these business relations and check how it can impact long-term shareholder returns.

Next Steps:

With significant institutional ownership, including active hedge, existing investors should seek a margin of safety when investing in CHKE. This is to avoid getting trapped in a sustained sell-off that is often observed in stocks with this level of institutional participation. However, if you are building an investment case for CHKE, ownership structure alone should not dictate your decision to buy or sell the stock. Rather, you should be looking at fundamental drivers such as the intrinsic valuation, which is a key driver of Cherokee’s share price. I highly recommend you to complete your research by taking a look at the following:

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

  2. Past Track Record: Has CHKE 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 CHKE’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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