Mesoblast Limited's (ASX:MSB) market cap dropped AU$96m last week; Individual investors bore the brunt

editorial-team@simplywallst.com (Simply Wall St)

Wed, May 7, 2025, 4:26 PM 4 min read

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Mesoblast Limited (ASX:MSB), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 39% to be precise, is individual investors. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

While insiders who own 37% came under pressure after market cap dropped to AU$2.2b last week,individual investors took the most losses.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Mesoblast, beginning with the chart below.

View our latest analysis for Mesoblast

ownership-breakdown — ASX:MSB Ownership Breakdown May 7th 2025

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Mesoblast?

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.

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

earnings-and-revenue-growth — ASX:MSB Earnings and Revenue Growth May 7th 2025

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Mesoblast. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Gregory George with 20% of shares outstanding. Silviu Itescu is the second largest shareholder owning 6.2% of common stock, and Grant George holds about 5.2% of the company stock. Silviu Itescu, who is the second-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Chief Executive Officer.

We also observed that the top 8 shareholders account for more than half of the share register, with a few smaller shareholders to balance the interests of the larger ones to a certain extent.

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 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 Mesoblast

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.

I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of Mesoblast Limited. It is very interesting to see that insiders have a meaningful AU$820m stake in this AU$2.2b business. Most would say this shows a good degree of alignment with shareholders, especially in a company of this size. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 39% 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.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Mesoblast better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for Mesoblast 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.