Both retail investors who control a good portion of Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd. (TSE:GLXY) along with institutions must be dismayed after last week's 4.2% decrease

Key Insights

• Significant control over Galaxy Digital Holdings by retail investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• 17% of the business is held by the top 25 shareholders
• Insiders have been selling lately

If you want to know who really controls Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd. (TSE:GLXY), 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 82% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

While the holdings of retail investors took a hit after last week’s 4.2% price drop, institutions with their 14% holdings also suffered.

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

View our latest analysis for Galaxy Digital Holdings

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Galaxy Digital Holdings?

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 Galaxy Digital Holdings. 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. 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 Galaxy Digital Holdings' earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Galaxy Digital Holdings. CI Global Asset Management is currently the company's largest shareholder with 4.6% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 2.5% and 1.2%, of the shares outstanding, respectively. Michael Daffey, who is the third-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Chairman of the Board.

Our studies suggest that the top 25 shareholders collectively control less than half of the company's shares, meaning that the company's shares are widely disseminated and there is no dominant shareholder.

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 Galaxy Digital Holdings

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.

We can report that insiders do own shares in Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd.. It is a pretty big company, so it is generally a positive to see some potentially meaningful alignment. In this case, they own around CA$225m worth of shares (at current prices). Most would say this shows alignment of interests between shareholders and the board. Still, it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public -- including retail investors -- own 82% of Galaxy Digital Holdings. This size of ownership gives investors from the general public some collective power. They can and probably do influence decisions on executive compensation, dividend policies and proposed business acquisitions.

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. To that end, you should learn about the 5 warning signs we've spotted with Galaxy Digital Holdings (including 3 which don't sit too well with us) .

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com