Institutions profited after NextEd Group Limited's (ASX:NXD) market cap rose AU$26m last week butindividual investors profited the most

Key Insights

• Significant control over NextEd Group by general public implies that this group likely has considerable sway over management and governance-related decisions
• The top 22 shareholders own 48% of the company
• Insiders own 17% of NextEd Group

If you want to know who really controls NextEd Group Limited (ASX:NXD), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are individual investors with 52% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

While individual investors were the group that reaped the most benefits after last week’s 10% price gain, institutions also received a 23% cut.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about NextEd Group.

View our latest analysis for NextEd Group

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About NextEd Group?

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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in NextEd Group. 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 NextEd Group's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in NextEd Group. Our data shows that Perpetual Limited is the largest shareholder with 6.7% of shares outstanding. With 6.6% and 6.0% of the shares outstanding respectively, Angus Johnson and Wilson Asset Management (International) Pty Limited are the second and third largest shareholders. In addition, we found that Glenn Elith, the CEO has 1.0% of the shares allocated to their name.

A deeper look at our ownership data shows that the top 22 shareholders collectively hold less than half of the register, suggesting a large group of small holders where no single shareholder has a majority.

Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of NextEd Group

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.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of NextEd Group Limited. Insiders own AU$48m worth of shares in the AU$288m company. We would say this shows alignment with shareholders, but it is worth noting that the company is still quite small; some insiders may have founded the business. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public -- including retail investors -- own 52% of NextEd Group. This level of ownership gives investors from the wider public some power to sway key policy decisions such as board composition, executive compensation, and the dividend payout ratio.

Private Company Ownership

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 8.5%, of the company's shares. It's hard to draw any conclusions from this fact alone, so its worth looking into who owns those private companies. Sometimes insiders or other related parties have an interest in shares in a public company through a separate private company.

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.

Many find it useful to take an in depth look at how a company has performed in the past. You can access this detailed graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

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.