Inseego Corp.'s (NASDAQ:INSG) institutional investors lost 15% over the past week but have profited from longer-term gains

Key Insights

• Given the large stake in the stock by institutions, Inseego's stock price might be vulnerable to their trading decisions
• A total of 7 investors have a majority stake in the company with 52% ownership
• Insiders have bought recently

A look at the shareholders of Inseego Corp. (NASDAQ:INSG) can tell us which group is most powerful. With 45% stake, institutions possess the maximum shares in the company. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Institutional investors was the group most impacted after the company's market cap fell to US$130m last week. However, the 194% one-year returns may have helped alleviate their overall losses. They should, however, be mindful of further losses in the future.

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

View our latest analysis for Inseego

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Inseego?

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.

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

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Inseego. North Sound Management, Inc. is currently the company's largest shareholder with 14% of shares outstanding. Tavistock Life Sciences is the second largest shareholder owning 13% of common stock, and Golden Harbor Ltd. holds about 8.7% of the company stock. In addition, we found that Juho Sarvikas, the CEO has 0.9% of the shares allocated to their name.

We did some more digging and found that 7 of the top shareholders account for roughly 52% 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. 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 Inseego

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.

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.

Shareholders would probably be interested to learn that insiders own shares in Inseego Corp.. In their own names, insiders own US$3.9m worth of stock in the US$130m company. It is good to see some investment by insiders, but we usually like to see higher insider holdings. It might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.

General Public Ownership

With a 30% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Inseego. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Private Equity Ownership

With a stake of 13%, private equity firms could influence the Inseego board. Some might like this, because private equity are sometimes activists who hold management accountable. But other times, private equity is selling out, having taking the company public.

Private Company Ownership

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 8.7%, of the company's shares. 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:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Inseego better, we need to consider many other factors. Be aware that Inseego is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those is significant...

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.