Mr Price Group Limited (JSE:MRP) most popular amongst retail investors who own 41% of the shares, institutions hold 38%

Key Insights

• Significant control over Mr Price Group by retail investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• 50% of the business is held by the top 20 shareholders
• Institutional ownership in Mr Price Group is 38%

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. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 41% to be precise, is retail investors. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Meanwhile, institutions make up 38% of the company’s shareholders. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders.

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?

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.

Mr Price Group already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Mr Price Group's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Mr Price Group is not owned by hedge funds. Our data shows that Public Investment Corporation Limited is the largest shareholder with 18% of shares outstanding. With 10% and 3.9% of the shares outstanding respectively, Ninety One UK Limited and The Vanguard Group, Inc. are the second and third largest shareholders. In addition, we found that Mark Blair, the CEO has 0.5% of the shares allocated to their name.

Looking at the shareholder registry, we can see that 50% of the ownership is controlled by the top 20 shareholders, meaning that no single shareholder has a majority interest in the ownership.

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 plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of Mr Price Group

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

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 data suggests that insiders own under 1% of Mr Price Group Limited in their own names. However, it's possible that insiders might have an indirect interest through a more complex structure. 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 R503m worth of shares (at current prices). It is always good to see at least some insider ownership, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 41% 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. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for Mr Price Group that you should be aware of.

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.