What You Need To Know About EnQuest PLC's (LON:ENQ) Investor Composition

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Simply Wall St

Sun, Jul 3, 2022, 2:23 AM 4 min read

With a market capitalization of UK£411m, EnQuest is a small cap stock, so it might not be well known by many institutional investors. Our analysis of the ownership of the company, below, shows that institutions are noticeable on the share registry. Let's delve deeper into each type of owner, to discover more about EnQuest.

Check out our latest analysis for EnQuest

ownership-breakdown — LSE:ENQ Ownership Breakdown July 3rd 2022

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About EnQuest?

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.

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

earnings-and-revenue-growth — LSE:ENQ Earnings and Revenue Growth July 3rd 2022

Investors should note that institutions actually own more than half the company, so they can collectively wield significant power. EnQuest is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Double A Ltd with 10% of shares outstanding. Aberforth Partners LLP is the second largest shareholder owning 8.5% of common stock, and Schroder Investment Management Limited holds about 5.5% of the company stock.

A closer look at our ownership figures suggests that the top 13 shareholders have a combined ownership of 51% implying that no single shareholder has a majority.

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. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of EnQuest

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

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 most recent data indicates that insiders own less than 1% of EnQuest PLC. But they may have an indirect interest through a corporate structure that we haven't picked up on. It seems the board members have no more than UK£980k worth of shares in the UK£411m company. Many tend to prefer to see a board with bigger shareholdings. A good next step might be to take a look at this free summary of insider buying and selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 24% stake in the company, and hence can't 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.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 10%, of the EnQuest stock. Private companies may be related parties. Sometimes insiders have an interest in a public company through a holding in a private company, rather than in their own capacity as an individual. While it's hard to draw any broad stroke conclusions, it is worth noting as an area for further research.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand EnQuest better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 5 warning signs for EnQuest (2 are potentially serious) that you should be aware of.

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

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.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. 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.