Despite recent sales, Astral Limited (NSE:ASTRAL) insiders remain the largest stockholders with 39% ownership

Key Insights

• Significant insider control over Astral implies vested interests in company growth
• The top 4 shareholders own 54% of the company
• Insiders have sold recently

If you want to know who really controls Astral Limited (NSE:ASTRAL), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. We can see that individual insiders own the lion's share in the company with 39% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Insiders own the top position in the company’s share registry despite recent sales and as a result, were the biggest beneficiaries of last week’s 9.1% gain.

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

See our latest analysis for Astral

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Astral?

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.

We can see that Astral does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. 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 Astral's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Astral. The company's CEO Sandeep Engineer is the largest shareholder with 32% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 8.5% and 7.6% of the stock. Interestingly, the third-largest shareholder, Jagruti Engineer is also a Member of the Board of Directors, again, indicating strong insider ownership amongst the company's top shareholders.

Our research also brought to light the fact that roughly 54% of the company is controlled by the top 4 shareholders suggesting that these owners wield significant influence on the business.

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 Astral

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 a reasonable proportion of Astral Limited. It is very interesting to see that insiders have a meaningful ₹229b stake in this ₹580b business. It is good to see this level of investment. You can check here to see if those insiders have been buying recently.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 22% stake in Astral. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Private Company Ownership

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 15%, of the company's shares. 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:

I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too.

I like to dive deeper into how a company has performed in the past. You can find historic revenue and earnings in this detailed graph.

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.