Individual investors among Atlantic Lithium Limited's (LON:ALL) largest shareholders, saw gain in holdings value after stock jumped 30% last week

Key Insights

• Significant control over Atlantic Lithium by individual investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• The top 17 shareholders own 47% of the company
• Analyst forecasts along with ownership data serve to give a strong idea about prospects for a business

If you want to know who really controls Atlantic Lithium Limited (LON:ALL), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are individual investors with 53% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Clearly, individual investors benefitted the most after the company's market cap rose by UK£26m last week.

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

View our latest analysis for Atlantic Lithium

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Atlantic Lithium?

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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Atlantic Lithium. 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. 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 Atlantic Lithium's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Atlantic Lithium is not owned by hedge funds. Assore Holdings Proprietary Limited is currently the largest shareholder, with 28% of shares outstanding. With 5.0% and 2.8% of the shares outstanding respectively, Piedmont Lithium Inc. and Fidelity International Ltd are the second and third largest shareholders.

A deeper look at our ownership data shows that the top 17 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 are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of Atlantic Lithium

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.

We can report that insiders do own shares in Atlantic Lithium Limited. It has a market capitalization of just UK£113m, and insiders have UK£5.3m worth of shares, in their own names. This shows at least some alignment, but we usually like to see larger insider holdings. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public -- including retail investors -- own 53% of Atlantic Lithium. 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.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 28%, of the Atlantic Lithium 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.

Public Company Ownership

We can see that public companies hold 5.0% of the Atlantic Lithium shares on issue. It's hard to say for sure but this suggests they have entwined business interests. This might be a strategic stake, so it's worth watching this space for changes in ownership.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Be aware that Atlantic Lithium is showing 4 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 2 of those are 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.