Chesapeake Gold Corp.’s (CVE:CKG) market cap up CA$48m last week, benefiting

Key Insights

• Significant control over Chesapeake Gold by individual investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• The top 15 shareholders own 44% of the company
• Insiders own 32% of Chesapeake Gold

If you want to know who really controls Chesapeake Gold Corp. (CVE:CKG), then you’ll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 56% to be precise, is individual investors. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Following a 40% increase in the stock price last week, individual investors profited the most, but insiders who own 32% stock also stood to gain from the increase.

Let’s take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Chesapeake Gold.

Check out our latest analysis for Chesapeake Gold

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Chesapeake Gold?

Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it’s included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.

Less than 5% of Chesapeake Gold is held by institutional investors. This suggests that some funds have the company in their sights, but many have not yet bought shares in it. If the company is growing earnings, that may indicate that it is just beginning to catch the attention of these deep-pocketed investors. It is not uncommon to see a big share price rise if multiple institutional investors are trying to buy into a stock at the same time. So check out the historic earnings trajectory, below, but keep in mind it’s the future that counts most.

It looks like hedge funds own 7.1% of Chesapeake Gold shares. That worth noting, since hedge funds are often quite active investors, who may try to influence management. Many want to see value creation (and a higher share price) in the short term or medium term. The company’s largest shareholder is Eric Sprott, with ownership of 13%. With 11% and 7.1% of the shares outstanding respectively, Alan Pangbourne and Sun Valley Gold LLC are the second and third largest shareholders.

On studying our ownership data, we found that 15 of the top shareholders collectively own less than 50% of the share register, implying that no single individual has a majority interest.

While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock’s expected performance. We’re not picking up on any analyst coverage of the stock at the moment, so the company is unlikely to be widely held.

Insider Ownership Of Chesapeake Gold

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of Chesapeake Gold Corp.. Insiders have a CA$53m stake in this CA$166m business. We would say this shows alignment with shareholders, but it is worth noting that the company is still quite small; some insiders may have founded the business. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, collectively holds 56% of Chesapeake Gold shares. With this amount of ownership, retail investors can collectively play a role in decisions that affect shareholder returns, such as dividend policies and the appointment of directors. They can also exercise the power to vote on acquisitions or mergers that may not improve profitability.

Private Company Ownership

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 3.9%, of the company’s shares. It might be worth looking deeper into this. If related parties, such as insiders, have an interest in one of these private companies, that should be disclosed in the annual report. Private companies may also have a strategic interest in the company.

Next Steps:

It’s always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to…