Here’s What Makes Chase Corporation (CCF) an Attractive Investment

Third Avenue Management, an investment management company, released its “Small-Cap Value Fund” second quarter 2022 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. During the second quarter, the fund declined 8.03% compared to a decline of 15.28% for its benchmark, the Russell 2000 Value Index. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2022.

Third Avenue Management discussed stocks like Chase Corporation (NYSE:CCF) in the second quarter investor letter. Headquartered in Westwood, Massachusetts, Chase Corporation (NYSE:CCF) is a chemicals company. On September 21, 2022, Chase Corporation (NYSE:CCF) stock closed at $86.27 per share. One-month return of Chase Corporation (NYSE:CCF) was -10.23% and its shares lost 18.57% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Chase Corporation (NYSE:CCF) has a market capitalization of $816.855 million.

Here is what Third Avenue Management specifically said about Chase Corporation (NYSE:CCF) in its Q2 2022 investor letter:

Chase Corporation (NYSE:CCF) is a global specialty chemicals company that manufactures coatings, adhesives, and sealants across various products that require protection from environmental damage and electromagnetic interference. Chase is a company we have been following for multiple years, but finally reached our disciplined buy target this quarter after shares declined to historically-low valuation levels.

The investment was attractive for a number of reasons. First, it is an integrated participant in various industry supply chains such as: computer electronics, consumer appliances, 5G fiber optics, and infrastructure projects all of which provide diversifying characteristics for the Fund. Second, the Company has built a strong financial position (both relative to peers and on an absolute basis with a net cash balance sheet), combined with attractive free cash flow6 generation and management that has shown a focus on shareholder returns. Third, industry concern is very high and near a consensus that there will be softness in future commodity chemicals pricing. While there is some validity to these concerns, we have identified Chase during our diligence as a company that has likely been underearning over the recent years, has resisted short-term price gouging, and has deliberately stayed in smaller/more insulated niche products to preserve its high margins. In our experience, when companies prioritize staying small in order to maintain shareholder returns (such as disposing of lower quality segments/assets, and monetizing non-core real estate) good things have tended to occur for shareholders over time.

Chase has a fairly straight forward roadmap to improve growth, optimize its capital structure and regain its historical valuation levels. Given the strength of its balance sheet, high-quality producing assets and a substantial discount to our estimate of the private market values for its business segments, we believe the risk-return profile remains highly attractive.”

Chase Corporation (NYSE:CCF) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 13 hedge fund portfolios held Chase Corporation (NYSE:CCF) at the end of the second quarter which was 11 in the previous quarter.

We discussed Chase Corporation (NYSE:CCF) in another article and shared the stock picks of Minerva Advisors. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2022 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.