Key Insights

• Institutions' substantial holdings in Perseus Mining implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price

• 51% of the business is held by the top 15 shareholders

• Using data from analyst forecasts alongside ownership research, one can better assess the future performance of a company

Every investor in Perseus Mining Limited (ASX:PRU) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 63% to be precise, is institutions. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

And as as result, institutional investors reaped the most rewards after the company's stock price gained 8.3% last week. The one-year return on investment is currently 71% and last week's gain would have been more than welcomed.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Perseus Mining.

View our latest analysis for Perseus Mining

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Perseus Mining?

Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Perseus Mining. 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 Perseus Mining's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences. We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Perseus Mining. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Van Eck Associates Corporation with 9.8% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 5.1% and 5.0%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.

Looking at the shareholder registry, we can see that 51% of the ownership is controlled by the top 15 shareholders, meaning that no single shareholder has a majority interest in the ownership.

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 are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.