WA1 Resources Ltd's (ASX:WA1) last week's 15% decline must have disappointed retail investors who have a significant stake

Key Insights

• Significant control over WA1 Resources by retail investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• The top 8 shareholders own 50% of the company
• 22% of WA1 Resources is held by insiders

If you want to know who really controls WA1 Resources Ltd (ASX:WA1), 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 37% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

While insiders, who own 22% shares weren’t spared from last week’s AU$164m market cap drop, retail investors as a group suffered the maximum losses

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of WA1 Resources, beginning with the chart below.

View our latest analysis for WA1 Resources

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About WA1 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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in WA1 Resources. This implies the analysts working for those institutions have looked at the stock and they like it. But just like anyone else, they could be wrong. 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 WA1 Resources' historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Our data indicates that hedge funds own 15% of WA1 Resources. That's interesting, because hedge funds can be quite active and activist. Many look for medium term catalysts that will drive the share price higher. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Agrimin Limited with 13% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 9.6% and 7.4%, of the shares outstanding, respectively. Paul Savich, who is the third-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Member of the Board of Directors.

On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 8 shareholders, suggesting that the interests of the larger shareholders are balanced out to an extent by the smaller ones.

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 some analyst coverage of the stock, but it could still become more well known, with time.

Insider Ownership Of WA1 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.

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of WA1 Resources Ltd. Insiders own AU$200m worth of shares in the AU$921m 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

With a 37% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over WA1 Resources. This size of ownership, while considerable, may not be enough to change company policy if the decision is not in sync with other large shareholders.

Private Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 3.1%, 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.

Public Company Ownership

It appears to us that public companies own 13% of WA1 Resources. We can't be certain but it is quite possible this is a strategic stake. The businesses may be similar, or work together.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Take risks for example - WA1 Resources has 2 warning signs (and 1 which is concerning) we think 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.