With 55% ownership, Granite Point Mortgage Trust Inc. (NYSE:GPMT) boasts of strong institutional backing

In this article:

Key Insights

  • Significantly high institutional ownership implies Granite Point Mortgage Trust's stock price is sensitive to their trading actions

  • A total of 25 investors have a majority stake in the company with 42% ownership

  • Using data from analyst forecasts alongside ownership research, one can better assess the future performance of a company

If you want to know who really controls Granite Point Mortgage Trust Inc. (NYSE:GPMT), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 55% to be precise, is institutions. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Given the vast amount of money and research capacities at their disposal, institutional ownership tends to carry a lot of weight, especially with individual investors. As a result, a sizeable amount of institutional money invested in a firm is generally viewed as a positive attribute.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Granite Point Mortgage Trust.

View our latest analysis for Granite Point Mortgage Trust

ownership-breakdown
ownership-breakdown

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Granite Point Mortgage Trust?

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.

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

earnings-and-revenue-growth
earnings-and-revenue-growth

Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. Hedge funds don't have many shares in Granite Point Mortgage Trust. BlackRock, Inc. is currently the largest shareholder, with 8.2% of shares outstanding. The Vanguard Group, Inc. is the second largest shareholder owning 5.4% of common stock, and Millennium Group Management LLC holds about 4.9% of the company stock. Additionally, the company's CEO John Taylor directly holds 0.5% of the total shares outstanding.

A deeper look at our ownership data shows that the top 25 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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Granite Point Mortgage Trust

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. 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.

Shareholders would probably be interested to learn that insiders own shares in Granite Point Mortgage Trust Inc.. It has a market capitalization of just US$275m, and insiders have US$5.5m 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, who are usually individual investors, hold a 43% stake in Granite Point Mortgage Trust. 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.

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. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for Granite Point Mortgage Trust (of which 2 are concerning!) you should know about.

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.

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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