Retail investors are Centaurus Metals Limited's (ASX:CTM) biggest owners and were rewarded after market cap rose by AU$22m last week

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by retail investors in Centaurus Metals indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• 50% of the business is held by the top 23 shareholders
• Institutions own 12% of Centaurus Metals

If you want to know who really controls Centaurus Metals Limited (ASX:CTM), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. With 50% stake, retail investors possess the maximum shares in the company. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

As a result, retail investors were the biggest beneficiaries of last week’s 11% gain.

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

View our latest analysis for Centaurus Metals

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Centaurus Metals?

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.

Centaurus Metals 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. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see Centaurus Metals' historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Centaurus Metals is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Mccusker Holdings Pty. Ltd. with 12% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 7.2% and 5.0% of the stock. Additionally, the company's CEO Darren Gordon directly holds 1.5% of the total shares outstanding.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 23 have the combined ownership of 50% in the company, suggesting that no single shareholder has significant control over the company.

While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Centaurus Metals

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.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own some shares in Centaurus Metals Limited. As individuals, the insiders collectively own AU$21m worth of the AU$228m company. This shows at least some alignment, but we usually like to see larger insider holdings. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 50% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Centaurus Metals. 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 29%, of the shares on issue. 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:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Centaurus Metals better, we need to consider many other factors. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 4 warning signs for Centaurus Metals (of which 1 makes us a bit uncomfortable!) you should know about.

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.