Palantir Technologies Inc.'s (NYSE:PLTR) market cap touched US$39b last week, benefiting both individual investors who own 51% as well as institutions

Key Insights

• Significant control over Palantir Technologies by individual investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• A total of 25 investors have a majority stake in the company with 38% ownership
• 10% of Palantir Technologies is held by insiders

If you want to know who really controls Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE:PLTR), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are individual investors with 51% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

While individual investors were the group that benefitted the most from last week’s US$2.2b market cap gain, institutions too had a 38% share in those profits.

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

View our latest analysis for Palantir Technologies

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Palantir Technologies?

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.

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

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Palantir Technologies. The company's largest shareholder is The Vanguard Group, Inc., with ownership of 8.6%. With 6.8% and 4.8% of the shares outstanding respectively, Peter Thiel and BlackRock, Inc. are the second and third largest shareholders. Peter Thiel, who is the second-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Top Key Executive. Furthermore, CEO Alexander Karp is the owner of 2.6% of the company's shares.

A deeper look at our ownership data shows that the top 25 shareholders collectively hold less than half of the register, suggesting a large group of small holders where 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. There are a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future.

Insider Ownership Of Palantir Technologies

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. 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.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of Palantir Technologies Inc.. It is very interesting to see that insiders have a meaningful US$4.0b stake in this US$39b business. Most would say this shows a good degree of alignment with shareholders, especially in a company of this size. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a substantial 51% stake in Palantir Technologies, suggesting it is a fairly popular stock. This level of ownership gives investors from the wider public some power to sway key policy decisions such as board composition, executive compensation, and the dividend payout ratio.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Palantir Technologies better, we need to consider many other factors. Take risks for example - Palantir Technologies has 1 warning sign we think you should be aware of.

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.