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Key Insights

• Insiders appear to have a vested interest in Metals Exploration's growth, as seen by their sizeable ownership

• 54% of the business is held by the top 2 shareholders

• Institutions own 32% of Metals Exploration

A look at the shareholders of Metals Exploration plc (LON:MTL) can tell us which group is most powerful. We can see that individual insiders own the lion's share in the company with 37% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

With such a notable stake in the company, insiders would be highly incentivised to make value accretive decisions.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Metals Exploration.

See our latest analysis for Metals Exploration

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Metals Exploration?

Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices.

We can see that Metals Exploration 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. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of Metals Exploration, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Metals Exploration is not owned by hedge funds. The company's largest shareholder is Nicholas Anthony Candy, with ownership of 35%. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 19% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 9.0% by the third-largest shareholder.

To make our study more interesting, we found that the top 2 shareholders have a majority ownership in the company, meaning that they are powerful enough to influence the decisions of the company.

Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. While there is some analyst coverage, the company is probably not widely covered. So it could gain more attention, down the track.

Insider Ownership Of Metals Exploration

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.