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Could The Frankly Inc (CVE:TLK) Ownership Structure Tell Us Something Useful?

The big shareholder groups in Frankly Inc (CVE:TLK) have power over the company. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders. Warren Buffett said that he likes ‘a business with enduring competitive advantages that is run by able and owner-oriented people’. So it’s nice to see some insider ownership, because it may suggest that management is owner-oriented.

Frankly is a smaller company with a market capitalization of CA$4m, so it may still be flying under the radar of many institutional investors. In the chart below below, we can see that institutions are not on the share registry. Let’s delve deeper into each type of owner, to discover more about TLK.

Check out our latest analysis for Frankly

TSXV:TLK Ownership Summary November 12th 18
TSXV:TLK Ownership Summary November 12th 18

What Does The Lack Of Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Frankly?

Institutional investors often avoid companies that are too small, too illiquid or too risky for their tastes. But it’s unusual to see larger companies without any institutional investors.

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There are multiple explanations for why institutions don’t own a stock. The most common is that the company is too small relative to fund under management, so the institition does not bother to look closely at the company. It is also possible that fund managers don’t own the stock because they aren’t convinced it will perform well. Frankly might not have the sort of past performance institutions are looking for, or perhaps they simply have not studied the business closely.

TSXV:TLK Income Statement Export November 12th 18
TSXV:TLK Income Statement Export November 12th 18

We note that hedge funds don’t have a meaningful investment in Frankly. Our information suggests that there isn’t any analyst coverage of the stock, so it is probably little known.

Insider Ownership Of Frankly

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. 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.

I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of Frankly Inc. It has a market capitalization of just CA$4m, and insiders have CA$493k worth of shares in their own names. It is great to see insiders so invested in the business. It might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying recently.

General Public Ownership

The general public, with a 40% stake in the company, will not easily be ignored. This size of ownership, while considerable, may not be enough to change company policy if the decision is not in sync with other large shareholders.

Private Company Ownership

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 27%, 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.

Public Company Ownership

It appears to us that public companies own 21% of TLK. This may be a strategic interest and the two companies may have related business interests. It could be that they have de-merged. This holding is probably worth investigating further.

Next Steps:

I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too.

I always like to check for a history of revenue growth. You can too, by accessing this free chart of historic revenue and earnings in this detailed graph.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies.

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.

To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.

The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.