Key Insights

The considerable ownership by retail investors in Oceania Healthcare indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy The top 25 shareholders own 41% of the company Insiders have been buying lately

A look at the shareholders of Oceania Healthcare Limited (NZSE:OCA) can tell us which group is most powerful. With 58% stake, retail investors possess the maximum shares in the company. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Institutions, on the other hand, account for 31% of the company's stockholders. Institutions often own shares in more established companies, while it's not unusual to see insiders own a fair bit of smaller companies.

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

Check out our latest analysis for Oceania Healthcare  ownership-breakdown

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Oceania Healthcare?

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.

We can see that Oceania Healthcare 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. 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 Oceania Healthcare's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story. earnings-and-revenue-growth

Oceania Healthcare is not owned by hedge funds. ANZ New Zealand Investments Limited is currently the company's largest shareholder with 8.7% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 4.0% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 3.9% by the third-largest shareholder. Gregory Tomlinson, who is the third-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Member of the Board of Directors.

Our studies suggest that the top 25 shareholders collectively control less than half of the company's shares, meaning that the company's shares are widely disseminated and there is no dominant shareholder.

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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Oceania Healthcare

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.

We can report that insiders do own shares in Oceania Healthcare Limited. It has a market capitalization of just NZ$550m, and insiders have NZ$27m worth of shares, in their own names. It is good to see some investment by insiders, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.

General Public Ownership

The general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, collectively holds 58% of Oceania Healthcare 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 6.4%, 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 Oceania Healthcare better, we need to consider many other factors. To that end, you should learn about the  4 warning signs  we've spotted with Oceania Healthcare (including 2 which shouldn't be ignored) .

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this freereport 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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content?Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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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