Key Insights

• Magellan Financial Group's significant individual investors ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public

• The top 25 shareholders own 45% of the company

• Recent sales by insiders

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Magellan Financial Group Limited (ASX:MFG), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are individual investors with 53% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

Institutions, on the other hand, account for 41% of the company's stockholders. Generally speaking, as a company grows, institutions will increase their ownership. Conversely, insiders often decrease their ownership over time.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Magellan Financial Group.

View our latest analysis for Magellan Financial Group

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Magellan Financial Group?

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.

Magellan Financial Group already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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 Magellan Financial Group's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Magellan Financial Group. BlackRock, Inc. is currently the largest shareholder, with 6.1% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 5.1% and 5.0% of the stock.

Our studies suggest that the top 25 shareholders collectively control less than half of the company's shares, meaning that the company's shares are widely disseminated and there is no dominant shareholder.

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 a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future.