Mayfair Gold Corp.'s (CVE:MFG) market cap surged CA$40m last week, retail investors who have a lot riding on the company were rewarded

Key Insights

• Mayfair Gold's significant retail investors ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• 47% of the business is held by the top 12 shareholders
• Recent purchases by insiders

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Every investor in Mayfair Gold Corp. (CVE:MFG) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are retail investors with 53% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

As a result, retail investors were the biggest beneficiaries of last week’s 15% gain.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Mayfair Gold.

See our latest analysis for Mayfair Gold

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Mayfair Gold?

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.

Since institutions own only a small portion of Mayfair Gold, many may not have spent much time considering the stock. But it's clear that some have; and they liked it enough to buy in. So if the company itself can improve over time, we may well see more institutional buyers in the future. When multiple institutional investors want to buy shares, we often see a rising share price. The past revenue trajectory (shown below) can be an indication of future growth, but there are no guarantees.

It would appear that 25% of Mayfair Gold shares are controlled by hedge funds. That catches my attention because hedge funds sometimes try to influence management, or bring about changes that will create near term value for shareholders. Our data shows that Muddy Waters Capital LLC is the largest shareholder with 15% of shares outstanding. With 10% and 9.5% of the shares outstanding respectively, MW Domino Management LLC and Henry Heeney are the second and third largest shareholders.

A deeper look at our ownership data shows that the top 12 shareholders collectively hold less than half of the register, suggesting a large group of small holders where no single shareholder has a majority.

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. We're not picking up on any analyst coverage of the stock at the moment, so the company is unlikely to be widely held.

Insider Ownership Of Mayfair Gold

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. The company management answer to the board and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board themselves.

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.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of Mayfair Gold Corp.. Insiders own CA$55m worth of shares in the CA$310m company. This may suggest that the founders still own a lot of shares. You can click here to see if they have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, collectively holds 53% of Mayfair Gold shares. This size of ownership gives investors from the general public some collective power. They can and probably do influence decisions on executive compensation, dividend policies and proposed business acquisitions.

Private Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 3.4%, 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:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Mayfair Gold better, we need to consider many other factors. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for Mayfair Gold (of which 2 make us uncomfortable!) you should know about.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies.

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.