Who Owns Most Of INSCAPE Corporation (TSE:INQ)?

I am going to take a deep dive into INSCAPE Corporation’s (TSX:INQ) most recent ownership structure, not a frequent subject of discussion among individual investors. The impact of a company's ownership structure affects both its short- and long-term performance. Differences in ownership structure of companies can have a profound effect on how management's incentives are aligned with shareholder returns, and whether they adhere to corporate governance best practices. Although this is an important factor for long-term investors, many investors can also be impacted by institutional presence and their high-volume trading. Now I will analyze INQ's shareholder registry in more detail.

View our latest analysis for INSCAPE

Institutional Ownership

Institutions account for 11.29% of INQ's outstanding shares, a significant enough holding to move stock prices if they start buying and selling in large quantities, especially when there are relatively small amounts of shares available on the market to trade. Although INQ has a high institutional ownership, such stock moves, in the short-term, are more commonly linked to a particular type of active institutional investors – hedge funds. Considering hedge funds hold a stake of 14.16% in the company, INQ shares may experience high short-term volatility as this class of institutions are frequently found to sell significantly during market-wide shocks. I am going to further examine INQ's ownership structure to check how other major shareholders can affect its investment case.

Insider Ownership

Insiders form another group of important ownership types as they manage the company's operations and decide the best use of capital. Insider ownership has been linked to better alignment between management and shareholders. 61.57% ownership of INQ insiders is large enough to make an impact on shareholder returns. In general, this level of insider ownership has negatively affected underperforming (consistently low PE ratio) companies and positively affected the companies that outperform (consistently high PE ratio). Another aspect of insider ownership is to learn about their recent transactions. While insider buying is possibly a sign of a positive outlook for the company, selling doesn't necessarily indicate a negative outlook as they may be selling to meet personal financial needs.

General Public Ownership

A substantial ownership of 12.97% in INQ is held by the general public. This size of ownership gives retail investors collective power in deciding on major policy decisions such as executive compensation, appointment of directors and acquisitions of businesses. This level of ownership gives retail investors the power to sway key policy decisions such as board composition, executive compensation, and potential acquisitions. This is a positive sign for an investor who wants to be involved in key decision-making of the company.

Next Steps:

With significant institutional ownership, including active hedge, existing investors should seek a margin of safety when investing in INQ. This will allow an investor to reduce the impact of non-fundamental factors, such as volatile block trading impact on their portfolio value. However, ownership structure should not be the only focus of your research when constructing an investment thesis around INQ. Rather, you should be examining fundamental factors such as the intrinsic valuation, which is a key driver of INSCAPE’s share price. I urge you to complete your research by taking a look at the following:

1. Financial Health: Is INQ’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.
2. Past Track Record: Has INQ 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 INQ's historicals for more clarity.
3. 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.

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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Simply Wall St analyst Simply Wall St and Simply Wall St have no position in any of the companies mentioned. This article 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.