Pensana Plc (LON:PRE) institutional owners may be pleased with recent gains after 43% loss over the past year

Key Insights

• Given the large stake in the stock by institutions, Pensana's stock price might be vulnerable to their trading decisions
• A total of 4 investors have a majority stake in the company with 52% ownership
• Recent purchases by insiders

If you want to know who really controls Pensana Plc (LON:PRE), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. With 36% stake, institutions possess the maximum shares in the company. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Institutional investors would probably welcome last week's 33% increase in share prices after a year of 43% losses as a sign that returns are likely to begin trending higher.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Pensana.

View our latest analysis for Pensana

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Pensana?

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.

Pensana 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. 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 Pensana's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Pensana is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Fundo Soberano de Angola with 28% of shares outstanding. M&G Investment Management Limited is the second largest shareholder owning 13% of common stock, and BNY Mellon Advisors, Inc. holds about 6.7% of the company stock.

To make our study more interesting, we found that the top 4 shareholders control more than half of the company which implies that this group has considerable sway over the company's decision-making.

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. As far as we can tell there isn't analyst coverage of the company, so it is probably flying under the radar.

Insider Ownership Of Pensana

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

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.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own some shares in Pensana Plc. It has a market capitalization of just UK£91m, and insiders have UK£5.6m worth of shares, in their own names. It is good to see some investment by insiders, but we usually like to see higher insider holdings. It might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.

General Public Ownership

With a 29% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Pensana. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Pensana better, we need to consider many other factors. Take risks for example - Pensana has 5 warning signs (and 3 which are a bit unpleasant) we think you should know about.

If you would prefer check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, backed by strong financial data.

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.