The big shareholder groups in PharmAust Limited (ASX:PAA) have power over the company. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders. I quite like to see at least a little bit of insider ownership. As Charlie Munger said ‘Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome.’
With a market capitalization of AU$7m, PharmAust is a small cap stock, so it might not be well known by many institutional investors. In the chart below below, we can see that institutional investors have not yet purchased much of the company. Let’s delve deeper into each type of owner, to discover more about PAA.
View our latest analysis for PharmAust
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About PharmAust?
Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it’s included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.
Less than 5% of PharmAust is held by institutional investors. This suggests that some funds have the company in their sights, but many have not yet bought shares in it. If the company is growing earnings, that may indicate that it is just beginning to catch the attention of these deep-pocketed investors. We sometimes see a rising share price when a few big institutions want to buy a certain stock at the same time. The history of earnings and revenue, which you can see below, could be helpful in considering if more institutional investors will want the stock. Of course, there are plenty of other factors to consider, too.
PharmAust is not owned by hedge funds. As far I can tell there isn’t analyst coverage of the company, so it is probably flying under the radar.
Insider Ownership Of PharmAust
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.
Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.
Our most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of PharmAust Limited. Insiders own AU$2m worth of shares in the AU$7m company. This may suggest that the founders still own a lot of shares. You can click here to see if they have been buying or selling.