A look at the shareholders of Chiasma, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHMA) can tell us which group is most powerful. Institutions will often hold stock in bigger companies, and we expect to see insiders owning a noticeable percentage of the smaller ones. Companies that have been privatized tend to have low insider ownership.
Chiasma is a smaller company with a market capitalization of US$219m, so it may still be flying under the radar of many institutional investors. In the chart below below, we can see that institutions own shares in the company. We can zoom in on the different ownership groups, to learn more about CHMA.
Check out our latest analysis for Chiasma
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Chiasma?
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.
Chiasma already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own 34% of 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 Chiasma's historic earnings and revenue, below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.
Our data indicates that hedge funds own 13% of Chiasma. That worth noting, since hedge funds are often quite active investors, who may try to influence management. Many want to see value creation (and a higher share price) in the short term or medium term. There are a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future.
Insider Ownership Of Chiasma
While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.
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 data suggests that insiders own under 1% of Chiasma, Inc. in their own names. It has a market capitalization of just US$219m, and the board has only US$1.3m worth of shares in their own names. I generally like to see a board more invested. However it might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.