After losing 25% in the past year, The ONE Group Hospitality, Inc. (NASDAQ:STKS) institutional owners must be relieved by the recent gain

Key Insights

• Given the large stake in the stock by institutions, ONE Group Hospitality's stock price might be vulnerable to their trading decisions
• 50% of the business is held by the top 7 shareholders
• Insiders have bought recently

If you want to know who really controls The ONE Group Hospitality, Inc. (NASDAQ:STKS), 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 institutions with 41% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

Last week's US$17m market cap gain would probably be appreciated by institutional investors, especially after a year of 25% losses.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about ONE Group Hospitality.

Check out our latest analysis for ONE Group Hospitality

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About ONE Group Hospitality?

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

Our data indicates that hedge funds own 5.5% of ONE Group Hospitality. That catches my attention because hedge funds sometimes try to influence management, or bring about changes that will create near term value for shareholders. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Kanen Wealth Management LLC with 16% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 10% and 5.9% of the stock. Note that the second and third-largest shareholders are also Top Key Executive and Member of the Board of Directors, respectively, meaning that the company's top shareholders are insiders.

We did some more digging and found that 7 of the top shareholders account for roughly 50% of the register, implying that along with larger shareholders, there are a few smaller shareholders, thereby balancing out each others interests somewhat.

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. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of ONE Group Hospitality

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.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of The ONE Group Hospitality, Inc.. It has a market capitalization of just US$106m, and insiders have US$21m worth of shares in their own names. It is great to see insiders so invested in the business. It might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying recently.

General Public Ownership

With a 34% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over ONE Group Hospitality. 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:

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 1 warning sign for ONE Group Hospitality you should know about.

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.