Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (TSE:IVN) is a favorite amongst institutional investors who own 33%

Key Insights

• Significantly high institutional ownership implies Ivanhoe Mines' stock price is sensitive to their trading actions
• The top 3 shareholders own 52% of the company
• Insiders have been selling lately

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (TSE:IVN), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 33% to be precise, is institutions. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

Since institutional have access to huge amounts of capital, their market moves tend to receive a lot of scrutiny by retail or individual investors. As a result, a sizeable amount of institutional money invested in a firm is generally viewed as a positive attribute.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Ivanhoe Mines, beginning with the chart below.

Check out our latest analysis for Ivanhoe Mines

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Ivanhoe Mines?

Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices.

Ivanhoe Mines already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see Ivanhoe Mines' historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Ivanhoe Mines. CITIC Group Corporation is currently the company's largest shareholder with 25% of shares outstanding. With 13% and 13% of the shares outstanding respectively, Zijin Mining Group Company Limited and Robert Martin Friedland are the second and third largest shareholders. Robert Martin Friedland, who is the third-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Co-Chairman of the Board.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 3 shareholders collectively control more than half of the company's shares, implying that they have considerable power to influence the company's decisions.

While it makes sense to study institutional ownership data for a company, it also makes sense to study analyst sentiments to know which way the wind is blowing. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Ivanhoe Mines

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.

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.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of Ivanhoe Mines Ltd.. It is very interesting to see that insiders have a meaningful CA$2.4b stake in this CA$18b business. Most would say this shows a good degree of alignment with shareholders, especially in a company of this size. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 15% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Ivanhoe Mines. 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.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 25%, of the Ivanhoe Mines stock. It's hard to draw any conclusions from this fact alone, so its worth looking into who owns those private companies. Sometimes insiders or other related parties have an interest in shares in a public company through a separate private company.

Public Company Ownership

It appears to us that public companies own 13% of Ivanhoe Mines. We can't be certain but it is quite possible this is a strategic stake. The businesses may be similar, or work together.

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. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for Ivanhoe Mines (of which 2 make us uncomfortable!) you should know about.

But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter future.

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.