Acumen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:ABOS) largest shareholders are private equity firms with 38% ownership, individual investors own 26%

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Simply Wall St

Sun, Sep 17, 2023, 6:19 AM 4 min read

Significant control over Acumen Pharmaceuticals by private equity firms implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
A total of 6 investors have a majority stake in the company with 53% ownership
15% of Acumen Pharmaceuticals is held by insiders

Every investor in Acumen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABOS) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 38% to be precise, is private equity firms. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Individual investors, on the other hand, account for 26% of the company's stockholders.

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

Check out our latest analysis for Acumen Pharmaceuticals

ownership-breakdown — NasdaqGS:ABOS Ownership Breakdown September 17th 2023

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Acumen Pharmaceuticals?

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.

Acumen Pharmaceuticals already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Acumen Pharmaceuticals' earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

earnings-and-revenue-growth — NasdaqGS:ABOS Earnings and Revenue Growth September 17th 2023

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Acumen Pharmaceuticals. Our data shows that RA Capital Management, L.P. is the largest shareholder with 26% of shares outstanding. With 6.8% and 6.0% of the shares outstanding respectively, Deep Track Capital, LP and Robert Hardie are the second and third largest shareholders.

On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 6 shareholders, suggesting that the interests of the larger shareholders are balanced out to an extent by the smaller ones.

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. 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 Acumen Pharmaceuticals

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of Acumen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.. It has a market capitalization of just US$320m, and insiders have US$50m worth of shares in their own names. We would say this shows alignment with shareholders, but it is worth noting that the company is still quite small; some insiders may have founded the business. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 26% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. 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.

Private Equity Ownership

Private equity firms hold a 38% stake in Acumen Pharmaceuticals. This suggests they can be influential in key policy decisions. Some might like this, because private equity are sometimes activists who hold management accountable. But other times, private equity is selling out, having taking the company public.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. For instance, we've identified 5 warning signs for Acumen Pharmaceuticals (3 are significant) that you should be aware of.

But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter future.

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.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. 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.