Institutions profited after Riot Platforms, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:RIOT) market cap rose US$249m last week but individual investors profited the most

In This Article:

Key Insights

  • Significant control over Riot Platforms by individual investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions

  • 43% of the business is held by the top 25 shareholders

  • Recent sales by insiders

Every investor in Riot Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIOT) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 48% to be precise, is individual investors. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

While individual investors were the group that reaped the most benefits after last week’s 8.4% price gain, institutions also received a 44% cut.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Riot Platforms, beginning with the chart below.

See our latest analysis for Riot Platforms

ownership-breakdown
NasdaqCM:RIOT Ownership Breakdown October 29th 2024

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Riot Platforms?

Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index.

Riot Platforms already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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 Riot Platforms' historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

earnings-and-revenue-growth
NasdaqCM:RIOT Earnings and Revenue Growth October 29th 2024

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Riot Platforms. The Vanguard Group, Inc. is currently the largest shareholder, with 9.7% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 7.1% and 3.0%, of the shares outstanding, respectively. Soo Yi, who is the third-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Chairman of the Board. Furthermore, CEO Jason Les is the owner of 2.8% of the company's shares.

On studying our ownership data, we found that 25 of the top shareholders collectively own less than 50% of the share register, implying that no single individual has a majority interest.

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. There are a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future.