VerticalScope Holdings Inc.'s (TSE:FORA) biggest owners are individual investors who got richer after stock soared 10% last week

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by individual investors in VerticalScope Holdings indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• A total of 6 investors have a majority stake in the company with 50% ownership
• Insiders have sold recently

If you want to know who really controls VerticalScope Holdings Inc. (TSE:FORA), 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).

As a result, individual investors collectively scored the highest last week as the company hit CA$204m market cap following a 10% gain in the stock.

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

Check out our latest analysis for VerticalScope Holdings

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About VerticalScope Holdings?

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.

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

VerticalScope Holdings is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is NordStar Capital LP with 15% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 14% and 14%, of the shares outstanding, respectively. Furthermore, CEO Robert Laidlaw is the owner of 1.3% of the company's shares.

We did some more digging and found that 6 of the top shareholders account for roughly 50% of the register, implying that along with larger shareholders, there are a few smaller shareholders, thereby balancing out each others interests somewhat.

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 VerticalScope Holdings

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. 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 VerticalScope Holdings Inc.. As individuals, the insiders collectively own CA$3.4m worth of the CA$204m 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-- including retail investors -- own 48% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. 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 Equity Ownership

With a stake of 43%, private equity firms could influence the VerticalScope Holdings board. Sometimes we see private equity stick around for the long term, but generally speaking they have a shorter investment horizon and -- as the name suggests -- don't invest in public companies much. After some time they may look to sell and redeploy capital elsewhere.

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. To that end, you should learn about the 3 warning signs we've spotted with VerticalScope Holdings (including 1 which is a bit unpleasant) .

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.