Many investors have a love-hate relationship with Chesapeake Energy. I know I certainly do. I’m still smarting from the let down knowing that its colorful and super smart CEO Aubrey McClendon got blown out of his own oversized margined position in 2008 without ever disclosing that he was buying all of his stock on a double down basis. I even called the Company at the time and asked them if he was using his own money to buy all this stock. They assured me he was. I then asked well, where does Aubrey get all of this money. They assured me Aubrey, well, he had a lot of money.
But I guess that’s just the way Aubrey runs. He’s an all in gambler with his money or yours. Chesapeake has assembled the most acreage in all of the hottest shale plays in the U.S but it’s stock has lagged The Wall Street Journal ran an article a week ago about this in its Heard on the Street column. Does anyone really believe him anymore or is the debt burden Chesapeake has assumed too much for it. Probably both but this Company prepared investor presentation is pretty striking. In order of full disclosure, I’m back in the stock for a 3% weighting. If one fifth of this presentation is accurate, I’ll wish I had more.