Yahoo Finance Surface Transforms Plc's (LON:SCE) recent 18% pullback adds to one-year year losses, institutional owners may take drastic measures
A look at the shareholders of Surface Transforms Plc (LON:SCE) can tell us which group is most powerful. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 48% to be precise, is institutions. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).
As a result, institutional investors endured the highest losses last week after market cap fell by UK£1.6m. The recent loss, which adds to a one-year loss of 39% for stockholders, may not sit well with this group of investors. Also referred to as "smart money", institutions have a lot of sway over how a stock's price moves. As a result, if the downtrend continues, institutions may face pressures to sell Surface Transforms, which might have negative implications on individual investors.
Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Surface Transforms.
View our latest analysis for Surface Transforms
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Surface Transforms?
Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices.
We can see that Surface Transforms does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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. 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 Surface Transforms, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.
Hedge funds don't have many shares in Surface Transforms. Richard Sneller is currently the company's largest shareholder with 10% of shares outstanding. Richard Sneller is the second largest shareholder owning 10% of common stock, and Unicorn Asset Management Limited holds about 7.6% of the company stock.
We also observed that the top 7 shareholders account for more than half of the share register, with a few smaller shareholders to balance the interests of the larger ones to a certain extent.
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 are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.
Insider Ownership Of Surface Transforms
The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.
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.
Our most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of Surface Transforms Plc. It has a market capitalization of just UK£94m, and insiders have UK£27m 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, who are usually individual investors, hold a 24% stake in Surface Transforms. 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:
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. Be aware that Surface Transforms is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those shouldn't be ignored...
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.
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