Scancell Holdings plc's (LON:SCLP) hedge funds shareholders had a great week as one-year returns increased after a 11% gain last week

Key Insights

• Significantly high institutional ownership implies Scancell Holdings' stock price is sensitive to their trading actions
• 51% of the business is held by the top 4 shareholders
• Using data from analyst forecasts alongside ownership research, one can better assess the future performance of a company

If you want to know who really controls Scancell Holdings plc (LON:SCLP), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 42% to be precise, is hedge funds. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

And things are looking up for hedge funds investors after the company gained UK£14m in market cap last week. The gains from last week would have further boosted the one-year return to shareholders which currently stand at 7.3%.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Scancell Holdings, beginning with the chart below.

View our latest analysis for Scancell Holdings

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Scancell Holdings?

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.

Scancell Holdings 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. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of Scancell Holdings, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

It would appear that 42% of Scancell Holdings shares are controlled by hedge funds. That's interesting, because hedge funds can be quite active and activist. Many look for medium term catalysts that will drive the share price higher. Redmile Group, LLC is currently the company's largest shareholder with 29% of shares outstanding. With 13% and 5.6% of the shares outstanding respectively, Vulpes Investment Management Private Limited and UBS Asset Management AG are the second and third largest shareholders.

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. 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 Scancell Holdings

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

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.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own less than 1% of Scancell Holdings plc. But they may have an indirect interest through a corporate structure that we haven't picked up on. It seems the board members have no more than UK£372k worth of shares in the UK£137m company. Many tend to prefer to see a board with bigger shareholdings. A good next step might be to take a look at this free summary of insider buying and selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 27% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Scancell Holdings better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 7 warning signs for Scancell Holdings (3 make us uncomfortable) that you should be aware of.

If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.

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.