Key Insights

• goeasy's significant retail investors ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public

• 38% of the business is held by the top 25 shareholders

• Insiders have sold recently

A look at the shareholders of goeasy Ltd. (TSE:GSY) can tell us which group is most powerful. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 57% to be precise, is retail investors. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

And individual insiders on the other hand have a 21% ownership in the company. Large companies usually have institutions as shareholders, and we usually see insiders owning shares in smaller companies.

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

See our latest analysis for goeasy

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About goeasy?

Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.

We can see that goeasy does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see goeasy's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

goeasy is not owned by hedge funds. Our data shows that Donald Johnson is the largest shareholder with 17% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 1.9% and 1.8%, of the shares outstanding, respectively. David Ingram, who is the second-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Top Key Executive.

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.

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 plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.