What You Need To Know About Alpha Financial Markets Consulting plc's (LON:AFM) Investor Composition

The big shareholder groups in Alpha Financial Markets Consulting plc (LON:AFM) have power over the company. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders. Companies that used to be publicly owned tend to have lower insider ownership.

Alpha Financial Markets Consulting is not a large company by global standards. It has a market capitalization of UK£234m, 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 bought into the company. Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Alpha Financial Markets Consulting.

See our latest analysis for Alpha Financial Markets Consulting

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Alpha Financial Markets Consulting?

Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.

We can see that Alpha Financial Markets Consulting does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Alpha Financial Markets Consulting's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences. We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Alpha Financial Markets Consulting. The company's largest shareholder is Berenberg Capital Management, with ownership of 11%. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 7.3% and 7.0% of the stock. Furthermore, CEO Euan N. Fraser is the owner of 1.5% of the company's shares.

On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 8 shareholders, suggesting that the interests of the larger shareholders are balanced out to an extent by the smaller ones.

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 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 Alpha Financial Markets Consulting

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.

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own some shares in Alpha Financial Markets Consulting plc. It has a market capitalization of just UK£234m, and insiders have UK£6.2m worth of shares, in their own names. It is good to see some investment by insiders, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.

General Public Ownership

The general public holds a 14% stake in Alpha Financial Markets Consulting. This size of ownership, while considerable, may not be enough to change company policy if the decision is not in sync with other large shareholders.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Alpha Financial Markets Consulting better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 3 warning signs for Alpha Financial Markets Consulting that you should be aware of before investing here.

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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