Institutions along with retail investors who hold considerable shares inO3 Mining Inc. (CVE:OIII) come under pressure; lose 10.0% of holdings value

Key Insights

• O3 Mining's significant retail investors ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• 49% of the business is held by the top 25 shareholders
• 22% of O3 Mining is held by Institutions

If you want to know who really controls O3 Mining Inc. (CVE:OIII), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. We can see that retail investors own the lion's share in the company with 51% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

While institutions, who own 22% shares weren’t spared from last week’s CA$14m market cap drop, retail investors as a group suffered the maximum losses

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of O3 Mining.

Check out our latest analysis for O3 Mining

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About O3 Mining?

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.

O3 Mining 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. 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 O3 Mining, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in O3 Mining. The company's largest shareholder is Osisko Mining Inc., with ownership of 21%. Franklin Resources, Inc. is the second largest shareholder owning 8.3% of common stock, and Jose Vizquerra Benavides holds about 5.3% of the company stock. Jose Vizquerra Benavides, who is the third-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Member of the Board of Directors.

On studying our ownership data, we found that 25 of the top shareholders collectively own less than 50% of the share register, implying that no single individual has a majority interest.

Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of O3 Mining

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. 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.

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 O3 Mining Inc.. In their own names, insiders own CA$8.1m worth of stock in the CA$141m company. Some would say this shows alignment of interests between shareholders and the board, though we generally prefer to see bigger insider holdings. But it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, collectively holds 51% of O3 Mining 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.

Public Company Ownership

Public companies currently own 21% of O3 Mining stock. 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:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand O3 Mining better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 2 warning signs for O3 Mining (1 is significant!) 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.