While institutions invested in Seabridge Gold Inc. (TSE:SEA) benefited from last week's 3.6% gain, individual investors stood to gain the most

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by individual investors in Seabridge Gold indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• The top 25 shareholders own 42% of the company
• Institutions own 44% of Seabridge Gold

If you want to know who really controls Seabridge Gold Inc. (TSE:SEA), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. We can see that individual investors own the lion's share in the company with 48% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

While individual investors were the group that reaped the most benefits after last week’s 3.6% price gain, institutions also received a 44% cut.

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

View our latest analysis for Seabridge Gold

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Seabridge Gold?

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 Seabridge Gold. 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 Seabridge Gold, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Seabridge Gold. The company's largest shareholder is Pan Atlantic Bank and Trust Limited, Asset Management Arm, with ownership of 6.8%. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 5.3% and 4.9%, of the shares outstanding, respectively. Additionally, the company's CEO Rudi Fronk directly holds 1.3% of the total shares outstanding.

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. While there is some analyst coverage, the company is probably not widely covered. So it could gain more attention, down the track.

Insider Ownership Of Seabridge Gold

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.

Shareholders would probably be interested to learn that insiders own shares in Seabridge Gold Inc.. 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$43m 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, who are usually individual investors, hold a 48% stake in Seabridge Gold. 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

We can see that Private Companies own 5.3%, of the shares on issue. It might be worth looking deeper into this. If related parties, such as insiders, have an interest in one of these private companies, that should be disclosed in the annual report. Private companies may also have a strategic interest in the company.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. For example, we've discovered 3 warning signs for Seabridge Gold (2 make us uncomfortable!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

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.