PLBY Group, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:PLBY) last week's 12% decline must have disappointed individual investors who have a significant stake

Key Insights

• Significant control over PLBY Group by individual investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• 50% of the business is held by the top 9 shareholders
• Insiders have been selling lately

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To get a sense of who is truly in control of PLBY Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLBY), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. We can see that individual investors own the lion's share in the company with 43% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

And last week, individual investors endured the biggest losses as the stock fell by 12%.

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

See our latest analysis for PLBY Group

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About PLBY Group?

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

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in PLBY Group. Byborg Enterprises S.A. is currently the largest shareholder, with 16% of shares outstanding. Rizvi Traverse Management LLC is the second largest shareholder owning 15% of common stock, and Fortress Investment Group LLC holds about 6.2% of the company stock. In addition, we found that Ben Kohn, the CEO has 1.8% of the shares allocated to their name.

On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 9 shareholders, suggesting that the interests of the larger shareholders are balanced out to an extent by the smaller ones.

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. While there is some analyst coverage, the company is probably not widely covered. So it could gain more attention, down the track.

Insider Ownership Of PLBY Group

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.

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 some shares in PLBY Group, Inc.. It has a market capitalization of just US$132m, and insiders have US$9.9m 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 43% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over PLBY Group. 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.

Private Equity Ownership

Private equity firms hold a 21% stake in PLBY Group. This suggests they can be influential in key policy decisions. Sometimes we see private equity stick around for the long term, but generally speaking they have a shorter investment horizon and -- as the name suggests -- don't invest in public companies much. After some time they may look to sell and redeploy capital elsewhere.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 16%, of the PLBY Group stock. 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:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Case in point: We've spotted 4 warning signs for PLBY Group 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.