Key Insights

• Significantly high institutional ownership implies Alico's stock price is sensitive to their trading actions

• The top 11 shareholders own 53% of the company

• 27% of Alico is held by insiders

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Alico, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALCO), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. With 56% stake, institutions possess the maximum shares in the company. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Given the vast amount of money and research capacities at their disposal, institutional ownership tends to carry a lot of weight, especially with individual investors. Therefore, a good portion of institutional money invested in the company is usually a huge vote of confidence on its future.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Alico, beginning with the chart below.

See our latest analysis for Alico

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Alico?

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 Alico. 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. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of Alico, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Investors should note that institutions actually own more than half the company, so they can collectively wield significant power. Hedge funds don't have many shares in Alico. Gate City Capital Management, LLC is currently the largest shareholder, with 11% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 6.7% and 6.2%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.

Looking at the shareholder registry, we can see that 53% of the ownership is controlled by the top 11 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 is some analyst coverage of the stock, but it could still become more well known, with time.