Is Plaza Retail REIT (TSE:PLZ.UN) Popular Amongst Insiders?

A look at the shareholders of Plaza Retail REIT (TSE:PLZ.UN) can tell us which group is most powerful. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders. Warren Buffett said that he likes "a business with enduring competitive advantages that is run by able and owner-oriented people." So it's nice to see some insider ownership, because it may suggest that management is owner-oriented.

Plaza Retail REIT is a smaller company with a market capitalization of CA$363m, so it may still be flying under the radar of many institutional investors. Our analysis of the ownership of the company, below, shows that institutions don't own many shares in the company. Let's delve deeper into each type of owner, to discover more about Plaza Retail REIT.

View our latest analysis for Plaza Retail REIT

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Plaza Retail REIT?

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.

Less than 5% of Plaza Retail REIT is held by institutional investors. This suggests that some funds have the company in their sights, but many have not yet bought shares in it. If the business gets stronger from here, we could see a situation where more institutions are keen to buy. We sometimes see a rising share price when a few big institutions want to buy a certain stock at the same time. The history of earnings and revenue, which you can see below, could be helpful in considering if more institutional investors will want the stock. Of course, there are plenty of other factors to consider, too.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Plaza Retail REIT. Paros Enterprises Limited is currently the company's largest shareholder with 15% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 9.8% and 8.3%, of the shares outstanding, respectively. Michael Zakuta, who is the second-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Chief Executive Officer.

A deeper look at our ownership data shows that the top 23 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. There is some analyst coverage of the stock, but it could still become more well known, with time.

Insider Ownership Of Plaza Retail REIT

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.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of Plaza Retail REIT. Insiders own CA$49m worth of shares in the CA$363m company. It is great to see insiders so invested in the business. It might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying recently.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are mostly retail investors, collectively hold 57% of Plaza Retail REIT shares. This level of ownership gives retail investors the power to sway key policy decisions such as board composition, executive compensation, and the dividend payout ratio.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 26%, of the Plaza Retail REIT stock. 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 Plaza Retail REIT better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 3 warning signs for Plaza Retail REIT (2 are concerning) that you should be aware of.

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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