Retail investors who hold 47% of Alpha HPA Limited (ASX:A4N) gained 11%, institutions profited as well

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by retail investors in Alpha HPA indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• A total of 17 investors have a majority stake in the company with 50% ownership
• Insiders own 11% of Alpha HPA

We've discovered 4 warning signs about Alpha HPA. View them for free.

If you want to know who really controls Alpha HPA Limited (ASX:A4N), 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 47% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

While retail investors were the group that benefitted the most from last week’s AU$102m market cap gain, institutions too had a 19% share in those profits.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Alpha HPA.

Check out our latest analysis for Alpha HPA

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Alpha HPA?

Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index.

We can see that Alpha HPA does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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 Alpha HPA's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

It looks like hedge funds own 10% of Alpha HPA shares. That worth noting, since hedge funds are often quite active investors, who may try to influence management. Many want to see value creation (and a higher share price) in the short term or medium term. Regal Partners Limited is currently the company's largest shareholder with 10% of shares outstanding. With 5.1% and 5.0% of the shares outstanding respectively, Orica Limited and Australian Super Pty Ltd are the second and third largest shareholders.

Looking at the shareholder registry, we can see that 50% of the ownership is controlled by the top 17 shareholders, meaning that no single shareholder has a majority interest in the ownership.

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 is a little analyst coverage of the stock, but not much. So there is room for it to gain more coverage.

Insider Ownership Of Alpha HPA

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

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 Alpha HPA Limited. Insiders have a AU$116m stake in this AU$1.0b business. 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

With a 47% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Alpha HPA. 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

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 7.7%, 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.

Public Company Ownership

We can see that public companies hold 5.1% of the Alpha HPA shares on issue. It's hard to say for sure but this suggests they have entwined business interests. This might be a strategic stake, so it's worth watching this space for changes in ownership.

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. Be aware that Alpha HPA is showing 4 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 2 of those are concerning...

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

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.