If you want to know who really controls Ramelius Resources Limited (ASX:RMS), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are individual investors with 56% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

While institutions, who own 40% shares weren’t spared from last week’s AU$85m market cap drop, individual investors as a group suffered the maximum losses

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Ramelius Resources.

Check out our latest analysis for Ramelius Resources

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Ramelius Resources?

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.

Ramelius Resources already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. 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 Ramelius Resources' historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Ramelius Resources is not owned by hedge funds. Our data shows that Van Eck Associates Corporation is the largest shareholder with 11% of shares outstanding. With 5.0% and 4.7% of the shares outstanding respectively, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP and Ruffer LLP are the second and third largest shareholders. In addition, we found that Mark Zeptner, the CEO has 0.5% of the shares allocated to their name.

On studying our ownership data, we found that 25 of the top shareholders collectively own less than 50% of the share register, implying that no single individual has a majority interest.

While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. 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 Ramelius Resources

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. 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.