While institutions invested in Ramelius Resources Limited (ASX:RMS) benefited from last week's 9.1% gain, retail investors stood to gain the most

Key Insights

• Significant control over Ramelius Resources by retail investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• A total of 25 investors have a majority stake in the company with 46% ownership
• 46% of Ramelius Resources is held by Institutions

If you want to know who really controls Ramelius Resources Limited (ASX:RMS), 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 retail investors with 51% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Following a 9.1% increase in the stock price last week, retail investors profited the most, but institutions who own 46% stock also stood to gain from the increase.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Ramelius Resources, beginning with the chart below.

Check out our latest analysis for Ramelius Resources

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Ramelius Resources?

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 Ramelius Resources 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 Ramelius Resources' earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Ramelius Resources. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP is currently the largest shareholder, with 5.3% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 4.1% and 4.1%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.

A deeper look at our ownership data shows that the top 25 shareholders collectively hold less than half of the register, suggesting a large group of small holders where no single shareholder has a majority.

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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Ramelius Resources

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. 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.

We can report that insiders do own shares in Ramelius Resources Limited. It has a market capitalization of just AU$1.4b, and insiders have AU$17m worth of shares, in their own names. Some would say this shows alignment of interests between shareholders and the board. But it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public -- including retail investors -- own 51% of Ramelius Resources. 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.

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. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Ramelius Resources 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.