Recent uptick might appease Rayonier Advanced Materials Inc. (NYSE:RYAM) institutional owners after losing 13% over the past year

Key Insights

• Institutions' substantial holdings in Rayonier Advanced Materials implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price
• 51% of the business is held by the top 14 shareholders
• Recent purchases by insiders

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To get a sense of who is truly in control of Rayonier Advanced Materials Inc. (NYSE:RYAM), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. With 63% stake, institutions possess the maximum shares in the company. 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 appreciate the 11% increase in share price last week, given their one-year losses have totalled a disappointing 13%.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Rayonier Advanced Materials, beginning with the chart below.

Check out our latest analysis for Rayonier Advanced Materials

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Rayonier Advanced Materials?

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.

We can see that Rayonier Advanced Materials does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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 Rayonier Advanced Materials' earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Investors should note that institutions actually own more than half the company, so they can collectively wield significant power. It looks like hedge funds own 9.5% of Rayonier Advanced Materials shares. That worth noting, since hedge funds are often quite active investors, who may try to influence management. Many want to see value creation (and a higher share price) in the short term or medium term. Condire Investors, LLC is currently the company's largest shareholder with 9.5% of shares outstanding. BlackRock, Inc. is the second largest shareholder owning 7.5% of common stock, and The Vanguard Group, Inc. holds about 5.7% of the company stock. Furthermore, CEO De Lyle Bloomquist is the owner of 0.8% of the company's shares.

A closer look at our ownership figures suggests that the top 14 shareholders have a combined ownership of 51% implying that no single shareholder has a majority.

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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Rayonier Advanced Materials

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. 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.

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.

We can report that insiders do own shares in Rayonier Advanced Materials Inc.. It has a market capitalization of just US$513m, and insiders have US$24m worth of shares, in their own names. It is good to see some investment by insiders, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 23% 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:

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. Take risks for example - Rayonier Advanced Materials has 1 warning sign we think you should be aware of.

But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter future.

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.