The big shareholder groups in CIBT Education Group Inc. (TSE:MBA) have power over the company. Generally speaking, as a company grows, institutions will increase their ownership. Conversely, insiders often decrease their ownership over time. 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.'
CIBT Education Group is a smaller company with a market capitalization of CA$50m, so it may still be flying under the radar of many institutional investors. In the chart below below, we can see that institutional investors have not yet purchased shares. Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholder can tell us about MBA.
View our latest analysis for CIBT Education Group
What Does The Lack Of Institutional Ownership Tell Us About CIBT Education Group?
Small companies that are not very actively traded often lack institutional investors, but it's less common to see large companies without them.
There are multiple explanations for why institutions don't own a stock. The most common is that the company is too small relative to fund under management, so the institition does not bother to look closely at the company. It is also possible that fund managers don't own the stock because they aren't convinced it will perform well. CIBT Education Group might not have the sort of past performance institutions are looking for, or perhaps they simply have not studied the business closely.
Hedge funds don't have many shares in CIBT Education Group. While there is some analyst coverage, the company is probably not widely covered. So it could gain more attention, down the track.
Insider Ownership Of CIBT Education Group
While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. 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.
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 CIBT Education Group Inc.. Insiders have a CA$9.0m stake in this CA$50m business. It is great to see insiders so invested in the business. It might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying recently.
General Public Ownership
The general public, who are mostly retail investors, collectively hold 66% of CIBT Education Group shares. This size of ownership gives retail investors collective power. They can and probably do influence decisions on executive compensation, dividend policies and proposed business acquisitions.