The recent 20% gain must have brightened CEO Kiriakos Anastasiadis' week, Acsion Limited's (JSE:ACS) most bullish insider

Key Insights

• Insiders appear to have a vested interest in Acsion's growth, as seen by their sizeable ownership
• The largest shareholder of the company is Kiriakos Anastasiadis with a 78% stake
• Ownership research, combined with past performance data can help provide a good understanding of opportunities in a stock

We've discovered 4 warning signs about Acsion. View them for free.

A look at the shareholders of Acsion Limited (JSE:ACS) can tell us which group is most powerful. We can see that individual insiders own the lion's share in the company with 85% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Clearly, insiders benefitted the most after the company's market cap rose by R535m last week.

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

See our latest analysis for Acsion

What Does The Lack Of Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Acsion?

We don't tend to see institutional investors holding stock of companies that are very risky, thinly traded, or very small. Though we do sometimes see large companies without institutions on the register, it's not particularly common.

There are many reasons why a company might not have any institutions on the share registry. It may be hard for institutions to buy large amounts of shares, if liquidity (the amount of shares traded each day) is low. If the company has not needed to raise capital, institutions might lack the opportunity to build a position. Alternatively, there might be something about the company that has kept institutional investors away. Institutional investors may not find the historic growth of the business impressive, or there might be other factors at play. You can see the past revenue performance of Acsion, for yourself, below.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Acsion. The company's CEO Kiriakos Anastasiadis is the largest shareholder with 78% of shares outstanding. This implies that they possess majority interests and have significant control over the company. Investors usually consider it a good sign when the company leadership has such a significant stake, as this is widely perceived to increase the chance that the management will act in the best interests of the company. With 3.9% and 2.9% of the shares outstanding respectively, C. Koukoudis and Dimitri Thomas are the second and third largest shareholders.

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. Our information suggests that there isn't any analyst coverage of the stock, so it is probably little known.

Insider Ownership Of Acsion

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.

Our information suggests that insiders own more than half of Acsion Limited. This gives them effective control of the company. Given it has a market cap of R3.2b, that means they have R2.7b worth of shares. Most would argue this is a positive, showing strong alignment with shareholders. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 12% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.

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 Acsion (of which 1 can't be ignored!) 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.