If you want to know who really controls Capital Limited (LON:CAPD), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders. 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.

With a market capitalization of UK£155m, Capital is a small cap stock, so it might not be well known by many institutional investors. In the chart below, we can see that institutions are noticeable on the share registry. Let's delve deeper into each type of owner, to discover more about Capital.

See our latest analysis for Capital

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Capital?

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.

Capital 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 Capital, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Capital. With a 12% stake, CEO Jamie Boyton is the largest shareholder. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 11% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 7.9% by the third-largest shareholder. Interestingly, the third-largest shareholder, Brian Rudd is also a Member of the Board of Directors, again, indicating strong insider ownership amongst the company's top shareholders.

We did some more digging and found that 7 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.

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.