In this analysis, my focus will be on developing a perspective on Ariadne Australia Limited’s (ASX:ARA) latest ownership structure, a less discussed, but important factor. When it comes to ownership structure of a company, the impact has been observed in both the long-and short-term performance of shares. If an activist institution invests the same amount of capital in a stock as a passive long-term pension fund, the implications are potentially different for key corporate financing decisions such as the use of excess cash or the source of financing. While these are more of a long-term investor’s concern, short-term investors may find the impact of institutional trading overwhelming enough to lose out on what could be a potential opportunity. Therefore, I will take a look at ARA’s shareholders in more detail.
Check out our latest analysis for Ariadne Australia
Institutional Ownership
Institutional investors typically buy and sell shares in large magnitudes which can significantly sway the share price, especially when there are relatively small amounts of shares available on the market to trade. With an institutional ownership of 5.85%, ARA doesn’t seem too exposed to higher volatility resulting from institutional trading.Insider Ownership
An important group of shareholders are company insiders. Insider ownership has to do more with how the company is managed and less to do with the direct impact of the magnitude of shares trading on the market. 62.87% ownership of ARA insiders is large enough to make an impact on shareholder returns. In general, this level of insider ownership has negatively affected underperforming (consistently low PE ratio) companies and positively affected the companies that outperform (consistently high PE ratio). It’s also interesting to learn what ARA insiders have been doing with their shareholdings lately. Insider buying may be a sign of upbeat future expectations, however, selling doesn’t necessarily mean the opposite as insiders may be motivated by their personal financial needs.General Public Ownership
The general public holds a substantial 16.09% stake in ARA, making it a highly popular stock among retail investors. This level of ownership gives retail investors the power to sway key policy decisions such as board composition, executive compensation, and potential acquisitions. This is a positive sign for an investor who wants to be involved in key decision-making of the company.Private Equity Ownership
With an ownership of 10.88%, private equity firms are a major stakeholder in ARA and are in a position to play an important role in shaping up corporate strategy with a focus on value creation. This is an encouraging sign for investors as these investors tend to be active strategist in companies, focusing on increasing operational and capital efficiency for the firm.Private Company Ownership
Another important group of owners for potential investors in ARA are private companies that hold a stake of 4.30% in ARA. These are companies that are mainly invested due to their strategic interests or are incentivized by reaping capital gains on investments their shareholdings. However, an ownership of this size may be relatively insignificant, meaning that these shareholders may not have the potential to influence ARA’s business strategy. Thus, investors not need worry too much about the consequences of these holdings.Next Steps:
With a low level of institutional ownership, investors in ARA need not worry about non-fundamental factors such as ownership structure causing large impact on stock prices. However, ownership structure should not be the only determining factor when you’re building an investment thesis for ARA. Instead, you should be evaluating company-specific factors such as the intrinsic valuation, which is a key driver of Ariadne Australia’s share price. I highly recommend you to complete your research by taking a look at the following:
- Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for ARA’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for ARA’s outlook.
- Past Track Record: Has ARA been consistently performing well irrespective of the ups and downs in the market? Go into more detail in the past performance analysis and take a look at the free visual representations of ARA’s historicals for more clarity.
- Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here.
To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.
The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.