Both retail investors who control a good portion of Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:PESI) along with institutions must be dismayed after last week's 14% decrease

Key Insights

• Significant control over Perma-Fix Environmental Services by retail investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• 46% of the business is held by the top 25 shareholders
• Institutional ownership in Perma-Fix Environmental Services is 43%

If you want to know who really controls Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:PESI), 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 retail investors with 50% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

While institutions who own 43% came under pressure after market cap dropped to US$163m last week,retail investors took the most losses.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Perma-Fix Environmental Services.

See our latest analysis for Perma-Fix Environmental Services

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Perma-Fix Environmental Services?

Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Perma-Fix Environmental Services. 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. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see Perma-Fix Environmental Services' historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Perma-Fix Environmental Services. Bankhaus Schelhammer & Schattera, Asset Management Arm is currently the largest shareholder, with 10% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 5.7% and 4.8% of the stock. In addition, we found that Mark Duff, the CEO has 0.7% of the shares allocated to their name.

On studying our ownership data, we found that 25 of the top shareholders collectively own less than 50% of the share register, implying that no single individual has a majority interest.

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 is some analyst coverage of the stock, but it could still become more well known, with time.

Insider Ownership Of Perma-Fix Environmental Services

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.

We can see that insiders own shares in Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc.. As individuals, the insiders collectively own US$12m worth of the US$163m company. 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 50% 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:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Take risks for example - Perma-Fix Environmental Services has 1 warning sign we think 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.