The considerable ownership by individual investors in Aspen Group indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
A total of 11 investors have a majority stake in the company with 51% ownership
If you want to know who really controls Aspen Group (ASX:APZ), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. We can see that individual investors own the lion's share in the company with 41% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.
Meanwhile, institutions make up 27% of the company’s shareholders. Institutions will often hold stock in bigger companies, and we expect to see insiders owning a noticeable percentage of the smaller ones.
Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Aspen Group.
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Aspen Group?
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.
As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Aspen Group. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. 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 Aspen Group's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.
ASX:APZ Earnings and Revenue Growth June 18th 2023
Our data indicates that hedge funds own 11% of Aspen Group. That's interesting, because hedge funds can be quite active and activist. Many look for medium term catalysts that will drive the share price higher. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Brahman Capital Management Pte. Ltd. with 11% of shares outstanding. Cooper Investors Pty Limited is the second largest shareholder owning 9.4% of common stock, and Moelis Australia Asset Management Ltd holds about 4.6% of the company stock. Additionally, the company's CEO John Carter directly holds 4.3% of the total shares outstanding.
After doing some more digging, we found that the top 11 have the combined ownership of 51% in the company, suggesting that no single shareholder has significant control over the company.
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 is some analyst coverage of the stock, but it could still become more well known, with time.
Insider Ownership Of Aspen Group
While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. The company management answer to the board and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board themselves.
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 Aspen Group. Insiders own AU$45m worth of shares in the AU$327m company. This may suggest that the founders still own a lot of shares. You can click here to see if they have been buying or selling.
General Public Ownership
The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 41% stake in Aspen Group. 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 Company Ownership
We can see that Private Companies own 7.0%, of the shares on issue. It's hard to draw any conclusions from this fact alone, so its worth looking into who owns those private companies. Sometimes insiders or other related parties have an interest in shares in a public company through a separate private company.
Next Steps:
It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Aspen Group better, we need to consider many other factors. Be aware that Aspen Group is showing 5 warning signs in our investment analysis, and 2 of those can't be ignored...
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.
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