Could The Field Trip Health Ltd. (CSE:FTRP) Ownership Structure Tell Us Something Useful?

If you want to know who really controls Field Trip Health Ltd. (CSE:FTRP), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders. I quite like to see at least a little bit of insider ownership. As Charlie Munger said 'Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome.

Field Trip Health is not a large company by global standards. It has a market capitalization of CA$172m, which means it wouldn't have the attention of many institutional investors. Our analysis of the ownership of the company, below, shows that institutional investors have not yet purchased shares. Let's delve deeper into each type of owner, to discover more about Field Trip Health.

Check out our latest analysis for Field Trip Health

What Does The Lack Of Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Field Trip Health?

Institutional investors often avoid companies that are too small, too illiquid or too risky for their tastes. But it's unusual to see larger companies without any institutional investors.

There are multiple explanations for why institutions don't own a stock. The most common is that the company is too small relative to funds under management, so the institution does not bother to look closely at the company. Alternatively, there might be something about the company that has kept institutional investors away. Institutional investors may not find the historic growth of the business impressive, or there might be other factors at play. You can see the past revenue performance of Field Trip Health, for yourself, below.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Field Trip Health. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is 2360203 Ontario Limited with 13% of shares outstanding. The second and third largest shareholders are Ryan Yermus and Mujeeb Jafferi, with an equal amount of shares to their name at 8.6%. Interestingly, the bottom two of the top three shareholders also hold the title of Top Key Executive and Member of the Board of Directors, respectively, suggesting that these insiders have a personal stake in the company.

Our studies suggest that the top 6 shareholders collectively control less than half of the company's shares, meaning that the company's shares are widely disseminated and there is no dominant shareholder.

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. While there is some analyst coverage, the company is probably not widely covered. So it could gain more attention, down the track.

Insider Ownership Of Field Trip Health

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.

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.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of Field Trip Health Ltd.. Insiders own CA$58m worth of shares in the CA$172m 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 retail investors -- own 53% of Field Trip Health. With this size of ownership, retail investors can collectively play a role in decisions that affect shareholder returns, such as dividend policies and the appointment of directors. They can also exercise the power to decline an acquisition or merger that may not improve profitability.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 13%, of the Field Trip Health stock. It might be worth looking deeper into this. If related parties, such as insiders, have an interest in one of these private companies, that should be disclosed in the annual report. Private companies may also have a strategic interest in the company.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Field Trip Health better, we need to consider many other factors. Be aware that Field Trip Health is showing 5 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 2 of those make us uncomfortable...

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

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. 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.
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