Today, I will be analyzing EMX Royalty Corporation’s (CVE:EMX) recent ownership structure, an important but not-so-popular subject among individual investors. Ownership structure of a company has been found to affect share performance over time. Different types of investors can have varying degrees of influence on a company’s management team. For example, an active institutional investor may be more likely to hold a company accountable for certain actions whereas a passive fund will move in and out of stocks without regards to corporate governance. The implications of these institutions’ actions can either benefit or hinder individual investors, so it is important to understand the ownership composition of your stock investment. Therefore, it is beneficial for us to examine EMX’s ownership structure in more detail.
Check out our latest analysis for EMX Royalty
Institutional Ownership
With an institutional ownership of 10.11%, EMX can face volatile stock price movements if institutions execute block trades on the open market, more so, when there are relatively small amounts of shares available on the market to trade These moves, at least in the short-term, are generally observed in an institutional ownership mix comprising of active stock pickers, in particular levered hedge funds, which can cause large price swings. Hedge funds, considered active investors, hold a 6.32% stake in the company, which may be the cause of high short-term volatility in the stock price. We should dig deeper into the company’s ownership structure to find how the rest of its ownership structure can impact its investment case.Insider Ownership
An important group of shareholders are company insiders. Insider ownership has to do more with how the company is managed and less to do with the direct impact of the magnitude of shares trading on the market. 17.33% ownership of EMX insiders is large enough to make an impact on shareholder returns. In general, this level of insider ownership has negatively affected underperforming (consistently low PE ratio) companies and positively affected the companies that outperform (consistently high PE ratio). Another aspect of insider ownership is to learn about their recent transactions. Insiders buying company shares can be a positive indicator of future performance, but a selling decision can simply be driven by personal financial needs.General Public Ownership
A substantial ownership of 66.24% in EMX is held by the general public. This level of ownership gives retail investors the power to sway key policy decisions such as board composition, executive compensation, and potential acquisitions. This is a positive sign for an investor who wants to be involved in key decision-making of the company.Private Company Ownership
Another group of owners that a potential investor in EMX should consider are private companies, with a stake of 0.0027%. While they invest more often due to strategic interests, an investment can also be driven by capital gains through share price appreciation. However, an ownership of this size may be relatively insignificant, meaning that these shareholders may not have the potential to influence EMX’s business strategy. Thus, investors not need worry too much about the consequences of these holdings.Next Steps:
I suggest investors seek some degree of margin of safety due to high institutional ownership in EMX, in particular due to the strong presence of active hedge fund investors. This will allow an investor to reduce the impact of non-fundamental factors, such as volatile block trading impact on their portfolio value. However, ownership structure should not be the only determining factor when you’re building an investment thesis for EMX. Rather, you should be looking at fundamental drivers such as EMX Royalty’s past track record and financial health. I urge you to complete your research by taking a look at the following:
- Financial Health: Are EMX’s operations financially sustainable? Balance sheets can be hard to analyze, which is why we’ve done it for you. Check out our financial health checks here.
- Past Track Record: Has EMX been consistently performing well irrespective of the ups and downs in the market? Go into more detail in the past performance analysis and take a look at the free visual representations of EMX’s historicals for more clarity.
- Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here.
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.
To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.
The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.