Yahoo Finance With 81% ownership, Oxford Metrics plc (LON:OMG) boasts of strong institutional backing
Key Insights
Significantly high institutional ownership implies Oxford Metrics' stock price is sensitive to their trading actions
The top 9 shareholders own 52% of the company
Ownership research along with analyst forecasts data help provide a good understanding of opportunities in a stock
Every investor in Oxford Metrics plc (LON:OMG) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. With 81% 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.
Given the vast amount of money and research capacities at their disposal, institutional ownership tends to carry a lot of weight, especially with individual investors. Hence, having a considerable amount of institutional money invested in a company is often regarded as a desirable trait.
In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Oxford Metrics.
View our latest analysis for Oxford Metrics
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Oxford Metrics?
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.
We can see that Oxford Metrics does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This implies the analysts working for those institutions have looked at the stock and they like it. But just like anyone else, they could be wrong. 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 Oxford Metrics' earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.
Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Oxford Metrics. Our data shows that Charles Stanley & Co. Ltd, Asset Management Arm is the largest shareholder with 12% of shares outstanding. With 10% and 6.9% of the shares outstanding respectively, Aviva Investors Global Services Ltd. and Canaccord Genuity Asset Management Limited are the second and third largest shareholders.
We also observed that the top 9 shareholders account for more than half of the share register, with a few smaller shareholders to balance the interests of the larger ones to a certain extent.
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 Oxford Metrics
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.
We can see that insiders own shares in Oxford Metrics plc. It has a market capitalization of just UK£145m, and insiders have UK£1.6m worth of shares, in their own names. This shows at least some alignment, but we usually like to see larger insider holdings. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.
General Public Ownership
With a 16% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Oxford Metrics. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.
Next Steps:
It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Oxford Metrics better, we need to consider many other factors. Case in point: We've spotted 2 warning signs for Oxford Metrics you should be aware of, and 1 of them is potentially serious.
If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.
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.
