A look at the shareholders of Mariner Corporation Limited (ASX:MCX) can tell us which group is most powerful. 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.’
Mariner is a smaller company with a market capitalization of AU$343k, so it may still be flying under the radar of many institutional investors. In the chart below below, we can see that institutions don’t own shares in the company. We can zoom in on the different ownership groups, to learn more about MCX.
View our latest analysis for Mariner
What Does The Lack Of Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Mariner?
Small companies that are not very actively traded often lack institutional investors, but it’s less common to see large companies without them.
There could be various reasons why no institutions own shares in a company. Typically, small, newly listed companies don’t attract much attention from fund managers, because it would not be possible for large fund managers to build a meaningful position in the company. It is also possible that fund managers don’t own the stock because they aren’t convinced it will perform well. Mariner’s earnings and revenue track record (below) may not be compelling to institutional investors — or they simply might not have looked at the business closely.
We note that hedge funds don’t have a meaningful investment in Mariner. Our information suggests that there isn’t any analyst coverage of the stock, so it is probably little known.
Insider Ownership Of Mariner
The definition of company insiders can be subjective, and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. 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 Mariner Corporation Limited. Insiders have a AU$75k stake in this AU$343k business. It is great to see insiders so invested in the business. It might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying recently.