Skeena Resources Limited's (TSE:SKE) large institutional owners must be happy as stock continues to impress, up 6.6% over the past week

Key Insights

• Institutions' substantial holdings in Skeena Resources implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price
• A total of 13 investors have a majority stake in the company with 50% ownership
• Insiders have sold recently

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If you want to know who really controls Skeena Resources Limited (TSE:SKE), 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 institutions with 46% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

And last week, institutional investors ended up benefitting the most after the company hit CA$2.6b in market cap. One-year return to shareholders is currently 149% and last week’s gain was the icing on the cake.

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

View our latest analysis for Skeena Resources

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Skeena Resources?

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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Skeena Resources. 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. 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 Skeena Resources, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Our data indicates that hedge funds own 13% of Skeena Resources. That's interesting, because hedge funds can be quite active and activist. Many look for medium term catalysts that will drive the share price higher. The company's largest shareholder is Helikon Investments Limited, with ownership of 13%. With 6.7% and 4.5% of the shares outstanding respectively, Orion Resource Partners (USA), L.P. and Blackstone Inc. are the second and third largest shareholders.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 13 have the combined ownership of 50% in the company, suggesting that no single shareholder has significant control over the company.

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. There are a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future.

Insider Ownership Of Skeena Resources

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

Shareholders would probably be interested to learn that insiders own shares in Skeena Resources Limited. 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$65m 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

With a 27% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Skeena Resources. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Private Equity Ownership

With a stake of 6.7%, private equity firms could influence the Skeena Resources board. Some might like this, because private equity are sometimes activists who hold management accountable. But other times, private equity is selling out, having taking the company public.

Private Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 4.1%, of the shares on issue. 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.

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. Take risks for example - Skeena Resources has 3 warning signs (and 2 which make us uncomfortable) we think you should know about.

If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its 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.