How Much Of BioHarvest Sciences Inc. (CSE:BHSC) Do Insiders Own?

If you want to know who really controls BioHarvest Sciences Inc. (CSE:BHSC), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. Large companies usually have institutions as shareholders, and we usually see insiders owning shares in smaller companies. I quite like to see at least a little bit of insider ownership. As Charlie Munger said 'Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome.

With a market capitalization of CA$164m, BioHarvest Sciences is a small cap stock, so it might not be well known by many institutional investors. Taking a look at our data on the ownership groups (below), it seems that institutions are not on the share registry. We can zoom in on the different ownership groups, to learn more about BioHarvest Sciences.

View our latest analysis for BioHarvest Sciences

What Does The Lack Of Institutional Ownership Tell Us About BioHarvest Sciences?

We don't tend to see institutional investors holding stock of companies that are very risky, thinly traded, or very small. Though we do sometimes see large companies without institutions on the register, it's not particularly common.

There are many reasons why a company might not have any institutions on the share registry. It may be hard for institutions to buy large amounts of shares, if liquidity (the amount of shares traded each day) is low. If the company has not needed to raise capital, institutions might lack the opportunity to build a position. Alternatively, there might be something about the company that has kept institutional investors away. Institutional investors may not find the historic growth of the business impressive, or there might be other factors at play. You can see the past revenue performance of BioHarvest Sciences, for yourself, below.

BioHarvest Sciences is not owned by hedge funds. Vivien Rakib is currently the company's largest shareholder with 29% of shares outstanding. Zaki Rakib is the second largest shareholder owning 29% of common stock, and David Ryan holds about 0.3% of the company stock. Interestingly, the bottom two of the top three shareholders also hold the title of President and Member of the Board of Directors, respectively, suggesting that these insiders have a personal stake in the company.

A more detailed study of the shareholder registry showed us that 2 of the top shareholders have a considerable amount of ownership in the company, via their 59% stake.

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. Our information suggests that there isn't any analyst coverage of the stock, so it is probably little known.

Insider Ownership Of BioHarvest Sciences

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. 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.

I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.

Our information suggests that insiders own more than half of BioHarvest Sciences Inc.. This gives them effective control of the company. Given it has a market cap of CA$164m, that means they have CA$98m worth of shares. It is good to see this level of investment. You can check here to see if those insiders have been buying recently.

General Public Ownership

With a 41% ownership, the general public have some degree of sway over BioHarvest Sciences. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.

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. Be aware that BioHarvest Sciences is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 2 of those are potentially serious...

If you would prefer check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, backed by strong financial data.

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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