What Kind Of Investors Own Most Of Magnetic Resources NL (ASX:MAU)?

If you want to know who really controls Magnetic Resources NL (ASX:MAU), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. Generally speaking, as a company grows, institutions will increase their ownership. Conversely, insiders often decrease their ownership over time. I generally like to see some degree of insider ownership, even if only a little. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb said, 'Don’t tell me what you think, tell me what you have in your portfolio.

Magnetic Resources is not a large company by global standards. It has a market capitalization of AU$306m, which means it wouldn't have the attention of many institutional investors. Taking a look at our data on the ownership groups (below), it's seems that institutions are not on the share registry. We can zoom in on the different ownership groups, to learn more about Magnetic Resources.

View our latest analysis for Magnetic Resources

What Does The Lack Of Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Magnetic Resources?

Institutional investors often avoid companies that are too small, too illiquid or too risky for their tastes. But it's unusual to see larger companies without any institutional investors.

There could be various reasons why no institutions own shares in a company. Typically, small, newly listed companies don't attract much attention from fund managers, because it would not be possible for large fund managers to build a meaningful position in the company. On the other hand, it's always possible that professional investors are avoiding a company because they don't think it's the best place for their money. Magnetic Resources might not have the sort of past performance institutions are looking for, or perhaps they simply have not studied the business closely.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Magnetic Resources. Our data shows that Chimseng Oan is the largest shareholder with 16% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 13% and 7.2% of the stock. Additionally, the company's CEO George Sakalidis directly holds 0.0251109 of the total shares outstanding.

On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 7 shareholders, suggesting that the interests of the larger shareholders are balanced out to an extent by the smaller ones.

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. As far I can tell there isn't analyst coverage of the company, so it is probably flying under the radar.

Insider Ownership Of Magnetic Resources

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. The company management answer to the board; and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board, themselves.

I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of Magnetic Resources NL. Insiders own AU$152m worth of shares in the AU$306m company. It is great to see insiders so invested in the business. It might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying recently.

General Public Ownership

The general public, with a 32% stake in the company, will not easily be ignored. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 19%, of the MAU stock. 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:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Case in point: We've spotted 4 warning signs for Magnetic Resources you should be aware of, and 2 of them make us uncomfortable.

Of course this may not be the best stock to buy. Therefore, you may wish to see our free collection of interesting prospects boasting favorable financials.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.

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