Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by individual investors in ProKidney indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• A total of 6 investors have a majority stake in the company with 52% ownership
• Insiders own 21% of ProKidney

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If you want to know who really controls ProKidney Corp. (NASDAQ:PROK), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. With 32% stake, individual investors possess the maximum shares in the company. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Individual investors gained the most after market cap touched US$178m last week, while institutions who own 27% also benefitted.

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

See our latest analysis for ProKidney

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About ProKidney?

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.

We can see that ProKidney does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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 ProKidney, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Our data indicates that hedge funds own 9.3% of ProKidney. That's interesting, because hedge funds can be quite active and activist. Many look for medium term catalysts that will drive the share price higher. Pablo Legorreta is currently the company's largest shareholder with 17% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 9.5% and 8.3% of the stock. In addition, we found that Bruce Culleton, the CEO has 1.2% of the shares allocated to their name.

On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 6 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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of ProKidney

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. The company management answer to the board and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board themselves.

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of ProKidney Corp.. Insiders have a US$38m stake in this US$178m business. We would say this shows alignment with shareholders, but it is worth noting that the company is still quite small; some insiders may have founded the business. 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

It seems that Private Companies own 8.0%, of the ProKidney stock. Private companies may be related parties. Sometimes insiders have an interest in a public company through a holding in a private company, rather than in their own capacity as an individual. While it's hard to draw any broad stroke conclusions, it is worth noting as an area for further research.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand ProKidney better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 4 warning signs for ProKidney (3 are a bit concerning!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.

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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.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.