Do Institutions Own Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMPH) Shares?

If you want to know who really controls Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMPH), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders. I quite like to see at least a little bit of insider ownership. As Charlie Munger said 'Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome.

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals has a market capitalization of US$858m, so we would expect some institutional investors to have noticed the stock. In the chart below, we can see that institutional investors have bought into the company. We can zoom in on the different ownership groups, to learn more about Amphastar Pharmaceuticals.

View our latest analysis for Amphastar Pharmaceuticals

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Amphastar Pharmaceuticals?

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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Amphastar Pharmaceuticals. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. 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 Amphastar Pharmaceuticals' 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. Hedge funds don't have many shares in Amphastar Pharmaceuticals. The company's largest shareholder is BlackRock, Inc., with ownership of 15%. With 14% and 6.8% of the shares outstanding respectively, Applied Physics & Chemistry Laboratories, Inc. and Federated Hermes, Inc. are the second and third largest shareholders. Furthermore, CEO Yongfeng Zhang is the owner of 4.4% of the company's shares.

On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 7 shareholders, suggesting that the interests of the larger shareholders are balanced out to an extent by the smaller ones.

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

Insider Ownership Of Amphastar Pharmaceuticals

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.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own some shares in Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, Inc.. As individuals, the insiders collectively own US$75m worth of the US$858m company. It is good to see some investment by insiders, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.

General Public Ownership

With a 22% ownership, the general public have some degree of sway over Amphastar Pharmaceuticals. This size of ownership, while considerable, may not be enough to change company policy if the decision is not in sync with other large shareholders.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 14%, of the Amphastar Pharmaceuticals 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. For instance, we've identified 3 warning signs for Amphastar Pharmaceuticals that 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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