Yahoo Finance Institutional investors are W&T Offshore, Inc.'s (NYSE:WTI) biggest bettors and were rewarded after last week's US$63m market cap gain
Key Insights
Institutions' substantial holdings in W&T Offshore implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price
52% of the business is held by the top 4 shareholders
If you want to know who really controls W&T Offshore, Inc. (NYSE:WTI), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are institutions with 56% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.
And things are looking up for institutional investors after the company gained US$63m in market cap last week. The gains from last week would have further boosted the one-year return to shareholders which currently stand at 24%.
In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of W&T Offshore.
See our latest analysis for W&T Offshore
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About W&T Offshore?
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.
W&T Offshore 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 W&T Offshore'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. W&T Offshore is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is the CEO Tracy Krohn with 33% of shares outstanding. State Street Global Advisors, Inc. is the second largest shareholder owning 8.1% of common stock, and The Vanguard Group, Inc. holds about 6.8% of the company stock.
Our research also brought to light the fact that roughly 52% of the company is controlled by the top 4 shareholders suggesting that these owners wield significant influence on the business.
While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. 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 W&T Offshore
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.
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.
Our most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of W&T Offshore, Inc.. Insiders own US$269m worth of shares in the US$798m company. 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, who are usually individual investors, hold a 11% stake in W&T Offshore. 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.
Next Steps:
While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. For example, we've discovered 3 warning signs for W&T Offshore (1 is 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.
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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.
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