Stock Analysis

What Percentage Of Avarga Limited (SGX:U09) Shares Do Insiders Own?

SGX:U09
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If you want to know who really controls Avarga Limited (SGX:U09), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders. I generally like to see some degree of insider ownership, even if only a little. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb said, 'Don’t tell me what you think, tell me what you have in your portfolio.

Avarga is not a large company by global standards. It has a market capitalization of S$307m, which means it wouldn't have the attention of many institutional investors. In the chart below, we can see that institutions are not really that prevalent on the share registry. Let's delve deeper into each type of owner, to discover more about Avarga.

View our latest analysis for Avarga

ownership-breakdown
SGX:U09 Ownership Breakdown January 27th 2021

What Does The Lack Of Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Avarga?

Institutional investors often avoid companies that are too small, too illiquid or too risky for their tastes. But it's unusual to see larger companies without any institutional investors.

There could be various reasons why no institutions own shares in a company. Typically, small, newly listed companies don't attract much attention from fund managers, because it would not be possible for large fund managers to build a meaningful position in the company. On the other hand, it's always possible that professional investors are avoiding a company because they don't think it's the best place for their money. Institutional investors may not find the historic growth of the business impressive, or there might be other factors at play. You can see the past revenue performance of Avarga, for yourself, below.

earnings-and-revenue-growth
SGX:U09 Earnings and Revenue Growth January 27th 2021

Avarga is not owned by hedge funds. From our data, we infer that the largest shareholder is Kooi Tong (who also holds the title of Top Key Executive) with 32% of shares outstanding. Its usually considered a good sign when insiders own a significant number of shares in the company, and in this case, we're glad to see a company insider play the role of a key stakeholder. With 20% and 3.2% of the shares outstanding respectively, Lim Hock and Maples Venture Capital Limited are the second and third largest shareholders.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 2 shareholders collectively control more than half of the company's shares, implying that they have considerable power to influence the company's decisions.

Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. We're not picking up on any analyst coverage of the stock at the moment, so the company is unlikely to be widely held.

Insider Ownership Of Avarga

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.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own the majority of Avarga Limited. This means they can collectively make decisions for the company. That means they own S$167m worth of shares in the S$307m company. That's quite meaningful. 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 holds a 42% stake in Avarga. 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

It seems that Private Companies own 3.2%, of the Avarga 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.

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. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 4 warning signs for Avarga you should know about.

Of course this may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free free list of interesting companies.

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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