If you want to know who really controls Bell Financial Group Limited (ASX:BFG), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are private companies with 48% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Meanwhile, individual investors make up 41% of the company’s shareholders.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Bell Financial Group, beginning with the chart below.

View our latest analysis for Bell Financial Group

What Does The Lack Of Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Bell Financial Group?

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

There are multiple explanations for why institutions don't own a stock. The most common is that the company is too small relative to funds under management, so the institution does not bother to look closely at the company. Alternatively, there might be something about the company that has kept institutional investors away. Bell Financial Group might not have the sort of past performance institutions are looking for, or perhaps they simply have not studied the business closely.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Bell Financial Group. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Bell Group Holdings Pty Limited with 46% of shares outstanding. James Moffatt is the second largest shareholder owning 1.9% of common stock, and Alastair Provan holds about 1.6% of the company stock. Alastair Provan, who is the third-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Chairman of the Board.

Our research also brought to light the fact that roughly 51% of the company is controlled by the top 4 shareholders suggesting that these owners wield significant influence on the business.

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. We're not picking up on any analyst coverage of the stock at the moment, so the company is unlikely to be widely held.

Insider Ownership Of Bell Financial 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. 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.