Yahoo Finance Shareholders Should Check If Insiders Own Shares In Incitec Pivot Limited (ASX:IPL)
In this article, I’m going to take a look at Incitec Pivot Limited’s (ASX:IPL) latest ownership structure, a non-fundamental factor which is important, but remains a less discussed subject among investors. The impact of a company’s ownership structure affects both its short- and long-term performance. Differences in ownership structure of companies can have a profound effect on how management’s incentives are aligned with shareholder returns, and whether they adhere to corporate governance best practices. Although this is an important factor for long-term investors, many investors can also be impacted by institutional presence and their high-volume trading. Now I will analyze IPL’s shareholder registry in more detail.
Check out our latest analysis for Incitec Pivot
Institutional Ownership
With an institutional ownership of 45.8%, IPL can face volatile stock price movements if institutions execute block trades on the open market, more so, when there are relatively small amounts of shares available on the market to trade Although IPL has a high institutional ownership, such stock moves, in the short-term, are more commonly linked to a particular type of active institutional investors – hedge funds. In the case of IPL, investors need not worry about such volatility considering active hedge funds don’t have a significant stake. However, we should dig deeper into IPL’s ownership structure and find out how other key ownership classes can affect its investment profile.
Insider Ownership
Insiders form a group of important ownership types as they manage the company’s operations and decide the best use of capital. Insider ownership has been linked to better alignment between management and shareholders. Although individuals in IPL hold only a minor stake, given IPL is a large-cap company, it is relatively meaningful. This is a good sign for shareholders as the company’s executives and directors have their incentives directly linked to the company’s performance. I will also like to check what insiders have been doing recently with their holdings. Insider buying may be a sign of upbeat future expectations, however, selling doesn’t necessarily mean the opposite as insiders may be motivated by their personal financial needs.
General Public Ownership
A big stake of 54.0% in IPL is held by the general public. With this size of ownership, retail investors can collectively play a role in major company policies that affect shareholders returns, including executive remuneration and the appointment of directors. They can also exercise the power to decline an acquisition or merger that may not improve profitability.
Next Steps:
IPL’s considerably high level of institutional ownership calls for further analysis into its margin of safety. This will allow investors to reduce the impact of non-fundamental factors, such as volatile block trading impact on their portfolio value. However, if you are building an investment case for IPL, ownership structure alone should not dictate your decision to buy or sell the stock. Rather, you should be examining fundamental factors such as Incitec Pivot’s past track record and financial health. I urge you to complete your research by taking a look at the following:
Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for IPL’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for IPL’s outlook.
Past Track Record: Has IPL been consistently performing well irrespective of the ups and downs in the market? Go into more detail in the past performance analysis and take a look at the free visual representations of IPL’s historicals for more clarity.
Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here.
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.
