Both individual investors who control a good portion of Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:AUPH) along with institutions must be dismayed after last week's 6.0% decrease

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by individual investors in Aurinia Pharmaceuticals indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• 33% of the business is held by the top 25 shareholders
• 41% of Aurinia Pharmaceuticals is held by Institutions

Every investor in Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:AUPH) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. We can see that individual investors own the lion's share in the company with 57% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Following a 6.0% decrease in the stock price last week, individual investors suffered the most losses, but institutions who own 41% stock also took a hit.

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

Check out our latest analysis for Aurinia Pharmaceuticals

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Aurinia 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.

Aurinia Pharmaceuticals already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of Aurinia Pharmaceuticals, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Aurinia Pharmaceuticals is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is BlackRock, Inc. with 5.8% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 4.2% and 3.3% of the stock.

On studying our ownership data, we found that 25 of the top shareholders collectively own less than 50% of the share register, implying that no single individual has a majority interest.

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

Insider Ownership Of Aurinia Pharmaceuticals

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

We can see that insiders own shares in Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc.. The insiders have a meaningful stake worth US$13m. Most would see this as a real positive. It is good to see this level of investment by insiders. You can check here to see if those insiders have been buying recently.

General Public Ownership

The general public -- including retail investors -- own 57% of Aurinia Pharmaceuticals. This size of ownership gives investors from the general public some collective power. They can and probably do influence decisions on executive compensation, dividend policies and proposed business acquisitions.

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.

Many find it useful to take an in depth look at how a company has performed in the past. You can access this detailed graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

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.