What Kind Of Investors Own Most Of American Superconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:AMSC)?

Simply Wall St

Thu, Dec 17, 2020, 9:41 PM 4 min read

The big shareholder groups in American Superconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:AMSC) have power over the company. Institutions often own shares in more established companies, while it's not unusual to see insiders own a fair bit of smaller companies. I generally like to see some degree of insider ownership, even if only a little. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb said, 'Don’t tell me what you think, tell me what you have in your portfolio.

American Superconductor is a smaller company with a market capitalization of US$608m, so it may still be flying under the radar of many institutional investors. In the chart below, we can see that institutions own shares in the company. Let's delve deeper into each type of owner, to discover more about American Superconductor.

View our latest analysis for American Superconductor

ownership-breakdown — NasdaqGS:AMSC Ownership Breakdown December 18th 2020

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About American Superconductor?

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.

American Superconductor already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. This implies the analysts working for those institutions have looked at the stock and they like it. But just like anyone else, they could be wrong. 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 American Superconductor's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

earnings-and-revenue-growth — NasdaqGS:AMSC Earnings and Revenue Growth December 18th 2020

Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. American Superconductor is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is BlackRock, Inc. with 5.3% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 5.0% and 4.5%, of the shares outstanding, respectively. In addition, we found that Daniel McGahn, the CEO has 2.4% of the shares allocated to his name

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 17 have the combined ownership of 50% in the company, suggesting that no single shareholder has significant control over 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. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of American Superconductor

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. 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.

We can see that insiders own shares in American Superconductor Corporation. As individuals, the insiders collectively own US$59m worth of the US$608m company. This shows at least some alignment. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, with a 34% stake in the company, will not easily be ignored. 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.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 4 warning signs for American Superconductor you should know about.

If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its future.

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.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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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