Key Insights

• Afentra's significant insider ownership suggests inherent interests in company's expansion

• A total of 8 investors have a majority stake in the company with 51% ownership

• Insiders have bought recently

Every investor in Afentra plc (LON:AET) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. We can see that individual insiders own the lion's share in the company with 37% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

A quick look at our data suggests that insiders have been buying shares in the company recently. This could signal that stock prices could go up and insiders are here for it.

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

Check out our latest analysis for Afentra

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Afentra?

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.

Afentra 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 Afentra's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

It would appear that 6.0% of Afentra shares are controlled by hedge funds. That catches my attention because hedge funds sometimes try to influence management, or bring about changes that will create near term value for shareholders. The company's largest shareholder is Askar Alshinbayev, with ownership of 22%. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 7.2% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 6.1% by the third-largest shareholder. Additionally, the company's CEO Paul McDade directly holds 2.4% of the total shares outstanding.

On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 8 shareholders, suggesting that the interests of the larger shareholders are balanced out to an extent by the smaller ones.

Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. While there is some analyst coverage, the company is probably not widely covered. So it could gain more attention, down the track.