Key Insights

• Astral Resources' significant individual investors ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• 41% of the business is held by the top 24 shareholders
• Insiders have been buying lately

Every investor in Astral Resources NL (ASX:AAR) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 59% to be precise, is individual investors. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

And private companies on the other hand have a 17% ownership in the company.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Astral Resources, beginning with the chart below.

Check out our latest analysis for Astral Resources

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Astral Resources?

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.

Astral Resources already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see Astral Resources' historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Astral Resources is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Simon Braham with 7.1% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 6.7% and 6.6% of the stock. In addition, we found that Marc Ducler, the CEO has 1.1% of the shares allocated to their name.

A deeper look at our ownership data shows that the top 24 shareholders collectively hold less than half of the register, suggesting a large group of small holders where no single shareholder has a majority.

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 Astral Resources

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

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 information suggests that insiders maintain a significant holding in Astral Resources NL. Insiders own AU$22m worth of shares in the AU$162m 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, mostly comprising of individual investors, collectively holds 59% of Astral Resources shares. This level of ownership gives investors from the wider public some power to sway key policy decisions such as board composition, executive compensation, and the dividend payout ratio.

Private Company Ownership

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 17%, 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:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Astral Resources better, we need to consider many other factors. To that end, you should learn about the 4 warning signs we've spotted with Astral Resources (including 3 which can'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.