Institutions along with individual investors who hold considerable shares inMr Price Group Limited (JSE:MRP) come under pressure; lose 4.9% of holdings value

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by individual investors in Mr Price Group indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• 50% of the business is held by the top 21 shareholders
• 35% of Mr Price Group is held by Institutions

If you want to know who really controls Mr Price Group Limited (JSE:MRP), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. We can see that individual investors own the lion's share in the company with 41% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

While the holdings of individual investors took a hit after last week’s 4.9% price drop, institutions with their 35% holdings also suffered.

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

See our latest analysis for Mr Price Group

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Mr Price Group?

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 Mr Price Group. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see Mr Price Group's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Mr Price Group is not owned by hedge funds. Public Investment Corporation Limited is currently the largest shareholder, with 20% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 5.0% and 4.3%, of the shares outstanding, respectively. In addition, we found that Mark Blair, the CEO has 0.5% of the shares allocated to their name.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 21 have the combined ownership of 50% in the company, suggesting that no single shareholder has significant control over the company.

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 Mr Price Group

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 less than 1% of Mr Price Group Limited. But they may have an indirect interest through a corporate structure that we haven't picked up on. It is a pretty big company, so it would be possible for board members to own a meaningful interest in the company, without owning much of a proportional interest. In this case, they own around R394m worth of shares (at current prices). It is good to see board members owning shares, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 41% stake in Mr Price Group. 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:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Mr Price Group better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 2 warning signs for Mr Price Group that 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.