Exscientia plc's (NASDAQ:EXAI) market cap touched US$797m last week, benefiting both individual investors who own 48% as well as institutions
Key Insights
Exscientia's significant individual investors ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
A total of 16 investors have a majority stake in the company with 50% ownership
If you want to know who really controls Exscientia plc (NASDAQ:EXAI), 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 individual investors with 48% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.
While individual investors were the group that reaped the most benefits after last week’s 15% price gain, institutions also received a 26% cut.
Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Exscientia, beginning with the chart below.
See our latest analysis for Exscientia
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Exscientia?
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.
Exscientia 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. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Exscientia's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.
Hedge funds don't have many shares in Exscientia. Andrew Hopkins is currently the company's largest shareholder with 15% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 11% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 4.5% by the third-largest shareholder.
After doing some more digging, we found that the top 16 have the combined ownership of 50% in the company, suggesting that no single shareholder has significant control over the company.
While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.
Insider Ownership Of Exscientia
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.
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.
Our most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of Exscientia plc. It has a market capitalization of just US$797m, and insiders have US$124m worth of shares in their own names. 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
With a 48% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Exscientia. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.
Public Company Ownership
We can see that public companies hold 11% of the Exscientia shares on issue. This may be a strategic interest and the two companies may have related business interests. It could be that they have de-merged. This holding is probably worth investigating further.
Next Steps:
It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Exscientia better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 3 warning signs for Exscientia (1 shouldn't be ignored) that you should be aware of.
If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.
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.
