Repole buys 1 million shares of Churchill Downs Inc.
In a move that makes Mike Repole Churchill Downs Inc.'s second-largest individual investor, the entrepreneurial owner-breeder announced Thursday on X that he bought 1 million shares of company stock over the past four days, a stake he put at close to 1.5% of the Louisville-based company.
According to investment information at Simply Wall St, company CEO Bill Carstanjen remains the largest individual investor with about 2.4%, while president and chief operating officer Bill Mudd owns about 1.1%.
"We appreciate and respect Mike Repole's vision, passion and optimism for the future of horse racing, and we welcome his significant investment in Churchill Downs Inc.," the company said in a statement Friday morning.
CDI stock, which trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol CHDN, has struggled, hitting a 52-week low of $73.08 earlier this week. It closed on Thursday at $76.16, up 3% against Wednesday's close. The company traded as high as about $150 a share in early May 2023 and about $145 a share in November 2024 but failed to maintain those values. Long-term, it has more than tripled in value since the Barack Obama administration.
CDI stock opened up 6.6% and was up 5.3% after the first hour of trading.
BlackRock holds 6.2 million shares, an 8.9% stake and the most of any investor in CDI. Counting the two Vanguard entities separately, the top seven investors hold about 31.5% of the company.
| Rank | Holder | Shares | % Owned |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BlackRock | 6.20M | 8.9% |
| 2 | Vanguard Capital Management | 3.41M | 4.9% |
| 3 | Vanguard Portfolio Management | 3.21M | 4.6% |
| 4 | FMR (Fidelity) | 2.95M | 4.2% |
| 5 | London Company of Virginia | 2.46M | 3.5% |
| 6 | State Street | 2.05M | 2.9% |
| 7 | Citadel Advisors | 1.71M | 2.5% |
| 8 | Bill Carstanjen (CEO) | 1.69M | 2.4% |
| 9 | Arrowstreet Capital | 1.44M | 2.1% |
| 10 | Geode Capital Management | 1.34M | 1.9% |
| 11 | Jennison Associates | 1.26M | 1.8% |
| 12 | Balyasny Asset Management | 1.22M | 1.8% |
| 13 | Boston Partners | 1.19M | 1.7% |
| 14 | HTV Industries | 1.15M | 1.6% |
| 15 | William Blair Investment Management | 1.10M | 1.6% |
| ~16 | Mike Repole (reported purchase) | 1.00M | ~1.5% |
| 17 | UBS Asset Management | 0.92M | 1.3% |
| 18 | Norges Bank Investment Management | 0.84M | 1.2% |
| 19 | AQR Capital Management | 0.84M | 1.2% |
| Repole's figures are as stated by Repole (1 million shares, about 1.5%). Other holdings reflect the latest available filings, which are made on different dates, so rankings near the 1 million share mark are approximate. CDI has roughly 69.7 million shares outstanding. Sources: Simply Wall St, MarketBeat. | |||