Following a 19% decline over last year, recent gains may please Alphatec Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATEC) institutional owners

Key Insights

• Institutions' substantial holdings in Alphatec Holdings implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price
• 50% of the business is held by the top 14 shareholders
• Insiders have bought recently

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Alphatec Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATEC), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. We can see that institutions own the lion's share in the company with 60% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

Institutional investors would probably welcome last week's 4.8% increase in the share price after a year of 19% losses as a sign that returns may to begin trending higher.

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

See our latest analysis for Alphatec Holdings

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Alphatec Holdings?

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.

Alphatec Holdings already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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 Alphatec Holdings' historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences. Alphatec Holdings is not owned by hedge funds. Squadron Capital, LLC is currently the company's largest shareholder with 8.0% of shares outstanding. With 6.7% and 5.8% of the shares outstanding respectively, LS Power Development, LLC and BlackRock, Inc. are the second and third largest shareholders. Furthermore, CEO Patrick Miles is the owner of 3.6% of the company's shares.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 14 have the combined ownership of 50% in the company, suggesting that no single shareholder has significant control over the company.

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

Insider Ownership Of Alphatec Holdings

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. The company management answer to the board and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board themselves.

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 information suggests that insiders maintain a significant holding in Alphatec Holdings, Inc.. It has a market capitalization of just US$1.4b, and insiders have US$165m worth of shares in their own names. That's quite significant. Most would be pleased to see the board is investing alongside them. You may wish to access this free chart showing recent trading by insiders.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 13% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Private Equity Ownership

With a stake of 8.0%, private equity firms could influence the Alphatec Holdings board. Some might like this, because private equity are sometimes activists who hold management accountable. But other times, private equity is selling out, having taking the company public.

Private Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 6.7%, of the shares on issue. 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:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Alphatec Holdings better, we need to consider many other factors. To that end, you should be aware of the 3 warning signs we've spotted with Alphatec Holdings .

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

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.