I was recently asked to share a small cap investment idea with the attendees of the Q2 Virtual Summit hosted by the Investor Summit Group. It is always fun to talk about a company that is not that well-known and operates in a market or industry with which most people are unfamiliar. As such, I decided to create a slide deck and present on Cove Street’s investment premise regarding Compass Minerals (Ticker: CMP). Many people might think that salt mining is not a particularly interesting topic but the margins and industry structure within CMP’s Salt segment are very attractive—and in our view underappreciated by the market. Additionally, recent capital allocation changes and a reduction in leverage have alleviated many of the concerns that our research suggests have plagued the stock over the last number of years.

If you are interested in learning more, please watch the video of the presentation embedded below. You can also access the slides here.

(Please note that this was a live Zoom session and there were a couple of instances of technical difficulties. While not ideal, we don’t think they detract meaningfully from the content.)

-Ben Claremon