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If you want to know who really controls FBR Limited (ASX:FBR), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. Large companies usually have institutions as shareholders, and we usually see insiders owning shares in smaller companies. I generally like to see some degree of insider ownership, even if only a little. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb said, 'Don’t tell me what you think, tell me what you have in your portfolio.
FBR is not a large company by global standards. It has a market capitalization of AU$150m, which means it wouldn't have the attention of many institutional investors. In the chart below, we can see that institutions are noticeable on the share registry. Let's delve deeper into each type of owner, to discover more about FBR.
View our latest analysis for FBR
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About FBR?
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.
FBR already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. This implies the analysts working for those institutions have looked at the stock and they like it. But just like anyone else, they could be wrong. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at FBR's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.
We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in FBR. Our data suggests that Mark Pivac, who is also the company's Top Key Executive, holds the most number of shares at 16%. When an insider holds a sizeable amount of a company's stock, investors consider it as a positive sign because it suggests that insiders are willing to have their wealth tied up in the future of the company. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 9.3% and 4.3%, of the shares outstanding, respectively. Interestingly, the third-largest shareholder, Michael Pivac is also a Member of the Board of Directors, again, indicating strong insider ownership amongst the company's top shareholders.
On studying our ownership data, we found that 24 of the top shareholders collectively own less than 50% of the share register, implying that no single individual has a majority interest.
While it makes sense to study institutional ownership data for a company, it also makes sense to study analyst sentiments to know which way the wind is blowing. There is some analyst coverage of the stock, but it could still become more well known, with time.