Yahoo Finance Here's What Cue Biopharma, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:CUE) Shareholder Ownership Structure Looks Like
Every investor in Cue Biopharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:CUE) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. Large companies usually have institutions as shareholders, and we usually see insiders owning shares in smaller companies. I quite like to see at least a little bit of insider ownership. As Charlie Munger said 'Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome.
Cue Biopharma is not a large company by global standards. It has a market capitalization of US$651m, which means it wouldn't have the attention of many institutional investors. In the chart below, we can see that institutional investors have bought into the company. Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholder can tell us about Cue Biopharma.
See our latest analysis for Cue Biopharma
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Cue Biopharma?
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 Cue Biopharma. 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. 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 Cue Biopharma's historic earnings and revenue, below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.
It looks like hedge funds own 15% of Cue Biopharma shares. That catches my attention because hedge funds sometimes try to influence management, or bring about changes that will create near term value for shareholders. The company's largest shareholder is Nantahala Capital Management, LLC, with ownership of 8.8%. With 6.6% and 5.4% of the shares outstanding respectively, Avoro Capital Advisors LLC and Peter Appel are the second and third largest shareholders.
Looking at the shareholder registry, we can see that 51% of the ownership is controlled by the top 17 shareholders, meaning that no one shareholder has a majority interest in the ownership.
While it makes sense to study institutional ownership data for a company, it also makes sense to study analyst sentiments to know which way the wind is blowing. 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 Cue Biopharma
While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. 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 maintain a significant holding in Cue Biopharma, Inc.. Insiders own US$105m worth of shares in the US$651m company. It is great to see insiders so invested in the business. It might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying recently.
General Public Ownership
With a 39% ownership, the general public have some degree of sway over CUE. 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 Cue Biopharma better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 5 warning signs for Cue Biopharma (1 is a bit unpleasant!) that you should be aware of before investing here.
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.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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.
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