Every investor in Burford Capital Limited (LON:BUR) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders. 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.
With a market capitalization of UK£1.2b, Burford Capital is a decent size, so it is probably on the radar of institutional investors. Taking a look at our data on the ownership groups (below), it's seems that institutions are noticeable on the share registry. Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholder can tell us about Burford Capital.
View our latest analysis for Burford Capital
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Burford Capital?
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.
As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Burford Capital. 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. 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 Burford Capital's earnings history, below. Of course, the future is what really matters.
Our data indicates that hedge funds own 6.4% of Burford Capital. That catches my attention because hedge funds sometimes try to influence management, or bring about changes that will create near term value for shareholders. Invesco Ltd. is currently the largest shareholder, with 9.5% of shares outstanding. With 6.4% and 5.1% of the shares outstanding respectively, Conifer Management, Llc and Mithaq Capital are the second and third largest shareholders. In addition, we found that Christopher Bogart, the CEO has 0.0413606 of the shares allocated to his name
After doing some more digging, we found that the top 14 have the combined ownership of 51% in the company, suggesting that no one share holder has significant control over the company.
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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.