A look at the shareholders of Sangoma Technologies Corporation (TSE:STC) can tell us which group is most powerful. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are institutions with 49% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.
Institutional investors would probably welcome last week's 22% increase in share prices after a year of 71% losses as a sign that returns are likely to begin trending higher.
In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Sangoma Technologies.
View our latest analysis for Sangoma Technologies
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Sangoma Technologies?
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.
As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Sangoma Technologies. 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. 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 Sangoma Technologies, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.
Hedge funds don't have many shares in Sangoma Technologies. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. is currently the largest shareholder, with 13% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 8.9% and 8.5%, of the shares outstanding, respectively. Norman Worthington, who is the third-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Chairman of the Board. Furthermore, CEO William Wignall is the owner of 1.3% of the company's shares.
We did some more digging and found that 8 of the top shareholders account for roughly 52% of the register, implying that along with larger shareholders, there are a few smaller shareholders, thereby balancing out each others interests somewhat.
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.
Insider Ownership Of Sangoma Technologies
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.