If you want to know who really controls Petrus Resources Ltd. (TSE:PRQ), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. 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.

With a market capitalization of CA$260m, Petrus Resources is a small cap stock, so it might not be well known by many institutional investors. Taking a look at our data on the ownership groups (below), it seems that institutional investors have not yet purchased shares. Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Petrus Resources.

Check out our latest analysis for Petrus Resources

What Does The Lack Of Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Petrus Resources?

Small companies that are not very actively traded often lack institutional investors, but it's less common to see large companies without them.

There could be various reasons why no institutions own shares in a company. Typically, small, newly listed companies don't attract much attention from fund managers, because it would not be possible for large fund managers to build a meaningful position in the company. It is also possible that fund managers don't own the stock because they aren't convinced it will perform well. Petrus Resources might not have the sort of past performance institutions are looking for, or perhaps they simply have not studied the business closely.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Petrus Resources. Donald Gray is currently the largest shareholder, with 27% of shares outstanding. With 23% and 21% of the shares outstanding respectively, Glen Gray and Stuart Gray are the second and third largest shareholders. In addition, we found that Ken Gray, the CEO has 2.9% of the shares allocated to their name.

To make our study more interesting, we found that the top 3 shareholders have a majority ownership in the company, meaning that they are powerful enough to influence the decisions of 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. Our information suggests that there isn't any analyst coverage of the stock, so it is probably little known.

Insider Ownership Of Petrus Resources

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.