In this article, I will take a quick look at Spirit Telecom Limited’s (ASX:ST1) recent ownership structure – an unconventional investing subject, but an important one. Ownership structure has been found to have an impact on shareholder returns in both short- and long-term. If an activist institution invests the same amount of capital in a stock as a passive long-term pension fund, the implications are potentially different for key corporate financing decisions such as the use of excess cash or the source of financing. While these are more of a long-term investor’s concern, short-term investors may find the impact of institutional trading overwhelming enough to lose out on what could be a potential opportunity. Therefore, it is beneficial for us to examine ST1’s ownership structure in more detail.
Check out our latest analysis for Spirit Telecom
Institutional Ownership
Institutional investors transact in large blocks which can influence the momentum of stock prices, at least in the short-term, especially when there is a low level of public shares available on the market to trade. With an institutional ownership of 7.43%, ST1 doesn’t seem too exposed to higher volatility resulting from institutional trading. Apart from low institutional ownership, another indicator of ST1’s low popularity is the fact that the company is only covered by 1 analyst.Insider Ownership
An important group of shareholders are company insiders. Insider ownership has to do more with how the company is managed and less to do with the direct impact of the magnitude of shares trading on the market. ST1 insiders hold a significant stake of 71.41% in the company. This level of insider ownership has been found to have a negative impact on companies with consistently low PE ratios (underperformers), while it has been positive in the case of high PE ratio firms (outperformers). It may be interesting to take a look at what company insiders have been doing with their holdings lately. Insiders buying company shares can be a positive indicator of future performance, but a selling decision can simply be driven by personal financial needs.General Public Ownership
A big stake of 13.77% in ST1 is held by the general public. With this size of ownership, retail investors can collectively play a role in major company policies that affect shareholders returns, including executive remuneration and the appointment of directors. They can also exercise the power to decline an acquisition or merger that may not improve profitability.Private Company Ownership
Another important group of owners for potential investors in ST1 are private companies that hold a stake of 7.39% in ST1. These are companies that are mainly invested due to their strategic interests or are incentivized by reaping capital gains on investments their shareholdings. This kind of ownership, if predominantly strategic, can give these companies a significant power to affect ST1’s business strategy. Thus, potential investors should look into these business relations and check how it can impact long-term shareholder returns.Next Steps:
With a low level of institutional ownership, investors in ST1 need not worry about non-fundamental factors such as ownership structure causing large impact on stock prices. However, if you are building an investment case for ST1, ownership structure alone should not dictate your decision to buy or sell the stock. Rather, you should be looking at fundamental drivers such as Spirit Telecom’s past track record and financial health. I urge you to complete your research by taking a look at the following:
- Financial Health: Is ST1’s operations financially sustainable? Balance sheets can be hard to analyze, which is why we’ve done it for you. Check out our financial health checks here.
- Past Track Record: Has ST1 been consistently performing well irrespective of the ups and downs in the market? Go into more detail in the past performance analysis and take a look at the free visual representations of ST1’s historicals for more clarity.
- Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here.
To help readers see pass the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price sensitive company announcements.
The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.