Retail investors who have a significant stake must be disappointed along with institutions after Corporate Travel Management Limited's (ASX:CTD) market cap dropped by AU$436m

Key Insights

• Corporate Travel Management's significant retail investors ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• A total of 19 investors have a majority stake in the company with 50% ownership
• 13% of Corporate Travel Management is held by insiders

If you want to know who really controls Corporate Travel Management Limited (ASX:CTD), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. With 48% stake, retail investors possess the maximum shares in the company. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

While institutions, who own 36% shares weren’t spared from last week’s AU$436m market cap drop, retail investors as a group suffered the maximum losses

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Corporate Travel Management, beginning with the chart below.

View our latest analysis for Corporate Travel Management

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Corporate Travel Management?

Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.

Corporate Travel Management already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. 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 Corporate Travel Management's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Corporate Travel Management. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is the CEO Jamie Pherous with 12% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 11% and 6.4%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 19 have the combined ownership of 50% in the company, suggesting that no single shareholder has significant control over the company.

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. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of Corporate Travel Management

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 information suggests that insiders maintain a significant holding in Corporate Travel Management Limited. It is very interesting to see that insiders have a meaningful AU$316m stake in this AU$2.4b business. Most would be pleased to see the board is investing alongside them. You may wish to access this free chart showing recent trading by insiders.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 48% stake in the company, and hence can't 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.

Next Steps:

I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too.

I always like to check for a history of revenue growth. You can too, by accessing this free chart of historic revenue and earnings in this detailed graph.

But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter future.

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.