Al Wathba National Insurance Company PJSC's (ADX:AWNIC) market cap dropped د.إ83m last week; Retail investors bore the brunt

Key Insights

• Significant control over Al Wathba National Insurance Company PJSC by retail investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• A total of 4 investors have a majority stake in the company with 52% ownership
• 14% of Al Wathba National Insurance Company PJSC is held by insiders

If you want to know who really controls Al Wathba National Insurance Company PJSC (ADX:AWNIC), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. We can see that retail investors own the lion's share in the company with 43% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

And last week, retail investors endured the biggest losses as the stock fell by 10.0%.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Al Wathba National Insurance Company PJSC.

See our latest analysis for Al Wathba National Insurance Company PJSC

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Al Wathba National Insurance Company PJSC?

Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices.

Al Wathba National Insurance Company PJSC already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Al Wathba National Insurance Company PJSC's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Al Wathba National Insurance Company PJSC. Darwish Bin Ahmed And Sons Group is currently the largest shareholder, with 31% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 8.2% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 7.5% by the third-largest shareholder.

To make our study more interesting, we found that the top 4 shareholders control more than half of the company which implies that this group has considerable sway over the company's decision-making.

While it makes sense to study institutional ownership data for a company, it also makes sense to study analyst sentiments to know which way the wind is blowing. As far as we can tell there isn't analyst coverage of the company, so it is probably flying under the radar.

Insider Ownership Of Al Wathba National Insurance Company PJSC

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.

Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of Al Wathba National Insurance Company PJSC. Insiders own د.إ104m worth of shares in the د.إ745m 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, who are usually individual investors, hold a 43% stake in Al Wathba National Insurance Company PJSC. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.

Private Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 36%, of the shares on issue. Private companies may be related parties. Sometimes insiders have an interest in a public company through a holding in a private company, rather than in their own capacity as an individual. While it's hard to draw any broad stroke conclusions, it is worth noting as an area for further research.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Al Wathba National Insurance Company PJSC better, we need to consider many other factors. Be aware that Al Wathba National Insurance Company PJSC is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those doesn't sit too well with us...

Of course this may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free free list of interesting companies.

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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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.