Key Insights

• Institutions' substantial holdings in Intelligent Monitoring Group implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price
• 54% of the business is held by the top 3 shareholders
• Recent purchases by insiders

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Intelligent Monitoring Group Limited (ASX:IMB), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are institutions with 60% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

And as as result, institutional investors reaped the most rewards after the company's stock price gained 12% last week. One-year return to shareholders is currently 19% and last week’s gain was the icing on the cake.

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

View our latest analysis for Intelligent Monitoring Group

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Intelligent Monitoring 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.

Intelligent Monitoring Group 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. 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 Intelligent Monitoring Group's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

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 Intelligent Monitoring Group. Black Crane Capital is currently the company's largest shareholder with 36% of shares outstanding. With 13% and 4.6% of the shares outstanding respectively, Orbis Investment Management Limited and Moelis Australia Asset Management Ltd are the second and third largest shareholders.

To make our study more interesting, we found that the top 3 shareholders have a majority ownership in the company, meaning that they are powerful enough to influence the decisions of the company.

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. There is a little analyst coverage of the stock, but not much. So there is room for it to gain more coverage.

Insider Ownership Of Intelligent Monitoring Group

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

Shareholders would probably be interested to learn that insiders own shares in Intelligent Monitoring Group Limited. In their own names, insiders own AU$4.4m worth of stock in the AU$182m company. This shows at least some alignment, but we usually like to see larger insider holdings. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 32% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.

Private Company Ownership

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 5.7%, of the company's shares. It's hard to draw any conclusions from this fact alone, so its worth looking into who owns those private companies. Sometimes insiders or other related parties have an interest in shares in a public company through a separate private company.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Intelligent Monitoring Group you should know about.

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.