Every investor in Southern Cross Electrical Engineering Limited (ASX:SXE) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. Institutions will often hold stock in bigger companies, and we expect to see insiders owning a noticeable percentage of the smaller ones. Warren Buffett said that he likes "a business with enduring competitive advantages that is run by able and owner-oriented people." So it's nice to see some insider ownership, because it may suggest that management is owner-oriented.

Southern Cross Electrical Engineering is a smaller company with a market capitalization of AU$156m, so it may still be flying under the radar of many institutional investors. Our analysis of the ownership of the company, below, shows that institutions own shares in the company. We can zoom in on the different ownership groups, to learn more about Southern Cross Electrical Engineering.

See our latest analysis for Southern Cross Electrical Engineering

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Southern Cross Electrical Engineering?

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.

Southern Cross Electrical Engineering 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. 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 Southern Cross Electrical Engineering, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Southern Cross Electrical Engineering is not owned by hedge funds. Our data shows that Gianfranco Tomasi is the largest shareholder with 18% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 9.1% and 9.0%, of the shares outstanding, respectively. In addition, we found that Graeme Dunn, the CEO has 0.6% of the shares allocated to their name.

On looking further, we found that 51% of the shares are owned by the top 5 shareholders. In other words, these shareholders have a meaningful say in the decisions of the company.

While it makes sense to study institutional ownership data for a company, it also makes sense to study analyst sentiments to know which way the wind is blowing. Our information suggests that there isn't any analyst coverage of the stock, so it is probably little known.