Key Insights

• Helloworld Travel's significant retail investors ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• The top 8 shareholders own 51% of the company
• Insiders have bought recently

If you want to know who really controls Helloworld Travel Limited (ASX:HLO), 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 retail investors with 46% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

And private companies on the other hand have a 29% ownership in the company.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Helloworld Travel.

Check out our latest analysis for Helloworld Travel

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Helloworld Travel?

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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Helloworld Travel. 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 Helloworld Travel's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Helloworld Travel. Sintack Pty Ltd. is currently the company's largest shareholder with 13% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 11% and 8.9% of the stock. In addition, we found that Andrew Burnes, the CEO has 6.6% 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 8 shareholders, suggesting that the interests of the larger shareholders are balanced out to an extent by the smaller ones.

While it makes sense to study institutional ownership data for a company, it also makes sense to study analyst sentiments to know which way the wind is blowing. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of Helloworld Travel

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. 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 Helloworld Travel Limited. Insiders have a AU$39m stake in this AU$258m business. This may suggest that the founders still own a lot of shares. You can click here to see if they have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 46% stake in Helloworld Travel. 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

It seems that Private Companies own 29%, of the Helloworld Travel stock. It might be worth looking deeper into this. If related parties, such as insiders, have an interest in one of these private companies, that should be disclosed in the annual report. Private companies may also have a strategic interest in the company.

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. Take risks for example - Helloworld Travel has 1 warning sign we think you should be aware of.

But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter future.

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.