Significantly high institutional ownership implies Global Ship Lease's stock price is sensitive to their trading actions
48% of the business is held by the top 25 shareholders
Ownership research along with analyst forecasts data help provide a good understanding of opportunities in a stock
To get a sense of who is truly in control of Global Ship Lease, Inc. (NYSE:GSL), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. We can see that institutions own the lion's share in the company with 44% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.
Because institutional owners have a huge pool of resources and liquidity, their investing decisions tend to carry a great deal of weight, especially with individual investors. As a result, a sizeable amount of institutional money invested in a firm is generally viewed as a positive attribute.
Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Global Ship Lease.
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Global Ship Lease?
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.
Global Ship Lease already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. 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 Global Ship Lease's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.
NYSE:GSL Earnings and Revenue Growth September 17th 2023
Our data indicates that hedge funds own 5.9% of Global Ship Lease. That catches my attention because hedge funds sometimes try to influence management, or bring about changes that will create near term value for shareholders. Because actions speak louder than words, we consider it a good sign when insiders own a significant stake in a company. In Global Ship Lease's case, its Top Key Executive, Georgios Youroukos, is the largest shareholder, holding 6.0% of shares outstanding. Whitefort Capital Management, LP is the second largest shareholder owning 5.9% of common stock, and Morgan Stanley, Investment Banking and Brokerage Investments holds about 5.4% of the company stock. Furthermore, CEO Ian Webber is the owner of 0.5% of the company's shares.
Our studies suggest that the top 25 shareholders collectively control less than half of the company's shares, meaning that the company's shares are widely disseminated and there is no dominant shareholder.
While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. 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 Global Ship Lease
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.
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 some shares in Global Ship Lease, Inc.. It has a market capitalization of just US$626m, and insiders have US$45m worth of shares, in their own names. This shows at least some alignment. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.
General Public Ownership
The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 43% stake in Global Ship Lease. 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.
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.
