After losing 31% in the past year, Voyager Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VYGR) institutional owners must be relieved by the recent gain

Key Insights

• Significantly high institutional ownership implies Voyager Therapeutics' stock price is sensitive to their trading actions
• The top 7 shareholders own 53% of the company
• Recent sales by insiders

Every investor in Voyager Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VYGR) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 49% to be precise, is institutions. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Last week's US$48m market cap gain would probably be appreciated by institutional investors, especially after a year of 31% losses.

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

See our latest analysis for Voyager Therapeutics

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Voyager Therapeutics?

Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Voyager Therapeutics. 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. 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 Voyager Therapeutics, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

It would appear that 16% of Voyager Therapeutics shares are controlled by hedge funds. That catches my attention because hedge funds sometimes try to influence management, or bring about changes that will create near term value for shareholders. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. with 16% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 8.6% and 8.1%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.

We did some more digging and found that 7 of the top shareholders account for roughly 53% of the register, implying that along with larger shareholders, there are a few smaller shareholders, thereby balancing out each others interests somewhat.

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 Voyager Therapeutics

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.

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.

Shareholders would probably be interested to learn that insiders own shares in Voyager Therapeutics, Inc.. It has a market capitalization of just US$463m, and insiders have US$5.0m 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 19% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. 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.

Public Company Ownership

It appears to us that public companies own 16% of Voyager Therapeutics. It's hard to say for sure but this suggests they have entwined business interests. This might be a strategic stake, so it's worth watching this space for changes in ownership.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Case in point: We've spotted 4 warning signs for Voyager Therapeutics you should be aware of, and 1 of them doesn't sit too well with us.

If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.

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.