Omeros Corporation's (NASDAQ:OMER) 19% loss last week hit both individual investors who own 46% as well as institutions

Key Insights

• Significant control over Omeros by retail investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• 50% of the business is held by the top 23 shareholders
• Insiders own 11% of Omeros

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Omeros Corporation (NASDAQ:OMER), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are retail investors with 46% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

While institutions who own 43% came under pressure after market cap dropped to US$186m last week,retail investors took the most losses.

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

Check out our latest analysis for Omeros

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Omeros?

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 Omeros does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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. 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 Omeros, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Omeros is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is the CEO Gregory Demopulos with 9.8% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 7.8% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 7.4% by the third-largest shareholder.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 23 have the combined ownership of 50% in the company, suggesting that no single shareholder has significant control over the company.

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 is some analyst coverage of the stock, but it could still become more well known, with time.

Insider Ownership Of Omeros

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of Omeros Corporation. Insiders have a US$20m stake in this US$186m business. 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

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 46% 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.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Omeros better, we need to consider many other factors. Be aware that Omeros is showing 4 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 2 of those are a bit concerning...

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.