While institutions own 33% of Premium Brands Holdings Corporation (TSE:PBH), retail investors are its largest shareholders with 54% ownership

Key Insights

• Significant control over Premium Brands Holdings by retail investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• The top 25 shareholders own 44% of the company
• Insiders have been selling lately

If you want to know who really controls Premium Brands Holdings Corporation (TSE:PBH), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. With 54% stake, retail investors possess the maximum shares in the company. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

Institutions, on the other hand, account for 33% of the company's stockholders. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Premium Brands Holdings.

See our latest analysis for Premium Brands Holdings

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Premium Brands Holdings?

Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Premium Brands Holdings. 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. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of Premium Brands Holdings, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

It would appear that 11% of Premium Brands Holdings shares are controlled by hedge funds. That worth noting, since hedge funds are often quite active investors, who may try to influence management. Many want to see value creation (and a higher share price) in the short term or medium term. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Jarislowsky, Fraser Limited with 12% of shares outstanding. Mackenzie Financial Corporation is the second largest shareholder owning 11% of common stock, and IG Investment Management, Ltd. holds about 4.1% of the company stock. In addition, we found that George Paleologou, the CEO has 0.9% of the shares allocated to their name.

A deeper look at our ownership data shows that the top 25 shareholders collectively hold less than half of the register, suggesting a large group of small holders where no single shareholder has a majority.

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 Premium Brands Holdings

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. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

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 most recent data indicates that insiders own some shares in Premium Brands Holdings Corporation. 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$104m 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 54% of Premium Brands Holdings. With this amount of ownership, retail investors can collectively play a role in decisions that affect shareholder returns, such as dividend policies and the appointment of directors. They can also exercise the power to vote on acquisitions or mergers that may not improve profitability.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Premium Brands Holdings better, we need to consider many other factors. Case in point: We've spotted 3 warning signs for Premium Brands Holdings you should be aware of, and 2 of them 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.