Copper 360 Limited's (JSE:CPR) insiders are still the largest shareholders with 67% stake despite recent sales

Key Insights

• Significant insider control over Copper 360 implies vested interests in company growth
• Shirley Hayes owns 58% of the company
• Recent sales by insiders

If you want to know who really controls Copper 360 Limited (JSE:CPR), 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 insiders with 67% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

Insiders are at the top of the company's shareholdings despite selling some shares recently. As a result, they were also the biggest winners as market cap hit R2.3b last week.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Copper 360.

Check out our latest analysis for Copper 360

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Copper 360?

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.

Less than 5% of Copper 360 is held by institutional investors. This suggests that some funds have the company in their sights, but many have not yet bought shares in it. If the company is growing earnings, that may indicate that it is just beginning to catch the attention of these deep-pocketed investors. We sometimes see a rising share price when a few big institutions want to buy a certain stock at the same time. The history of earnings and revenue, which you can see below, could be helpful in considering if more institutional investors will want the stock. Of course, there are plenty of other factors to consider, too.

Copper 360 is not owned by hedge funds. Our data shows that Shirley Hayes is the largest shareholder with 58% of shares outstanding. With such a huge stake in the ownership, we infer that they have significant control of the future of the company. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 5.6% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 4.3% by the third-largest shareholder. Rupert Smith, who is the third-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Vice Chairman. Additionally, the company's CEO Jan Nelson directly holds 2.0% of the total shares outstanding.

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. As far as we can tell there isn't analyst coverage of the company, so it is probably flying under the radar.

Insider Ownership Of Copper 360

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.

Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own the majority of Copper 360 Limited. This means they can collectively make decisions for the company. Given it has a market cap of R2.3b, that means they have R1.5b worth of shares. Most would be pleased to see the board is investing alongside them. You may wish todiscover (for free) if they have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 25% 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.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 5.6%, of the Copper 360 stock. 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:

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. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 4 warning signs for Copper 360 (of which 2 are significant!) you should know about.

Of course this may not be the best stock to buy. Therefore, you may wish to see our free collection of interesting prospects boasting favorable financials.

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.