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Do Insiders Own Shares In 1st Group Limited (ASX:1ST)?

The big shareholder groups in 1st Group Limited (ASX:1ST) have power over the company. Institutions will often hold stock in bigger companies, and we expect to see insiders owning a noticeable percentage of the smaller ones. 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.’

With a market capitalization of AU$7.6m, 1st Group is a small cap stock, so it might not be well known by many institutional investors. Our analysis of the ownership of the company, below, shows that institutions are not on the share registry. Let’s delve deeper into each type of owner, to discover more about 1ST.

View our latest analysis for 1st Group

ASX:1ST Ownership Summary January 3rd 19
ASX:1ST Ownership Summary January 3rd 19

What Does The Lack Of Institutional Ownership Tell Us About 1st Group?

Small companies that are not very actively traded often lack institutional investors, but it’s less common to see large companies without them.

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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. 1st Group’s earnings and revenue track record (below) may not be compelling to institutional investors — or they simply might not have looked at the business closely.

ASX:1ST Income Statement Export January 3rd 19
ASX:1ST Income Statement Export January 3rd 19

We note that hedge funds don’t have a meaningful investment in 1st Group. As far I can tell there isn’t analyst coverage of the company, so it is probably flying under the radar.

Insider Ownership Of 1st Group

The definition of company insiders can be subjective, and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. 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.

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.

It seems that insiders own more than half the 1st Group Limited stock. This gives them a lot of power. That means they own AU$4.2m worth of shares in the AU$7.6m company. That’s quite meaningful. 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, with a 32% stake in the company, will not easily be ignored. This size of ownership, while considerable, may not be enough to change company policy if the decision is not in sync with other large shareholders.

Private Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 12%, of the shares on issue. It might be worth looking deeper into this. If related parties, such as insiders, have an interest in one of these private companies, that should be disclosed in the annual report. Private companies may also have a strategic interest in the company.

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.

I like to dive deeper into how a company has performed in the past. You can access this interactive graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow for free .

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies.

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.

To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.

The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.