IperionX Limited's (ASX:IPX) top owners are individual investors with 48% stake, while 39% is held by institutions
Key Insights
Significant control over IperionX by individual investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
50% of the business is held by the top 8 shareholders
Insiders have bought recently
A look at the shareholders of IperionX Limited (ASX:IPX) can tell us which group is most powerful. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 48% to be precise, is individual investors. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).
And institutions on the other hand have a 39% ownership in the company. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders.
Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of IperionX, beginning with the chart below.
Check out our latest analysis for IperionX
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About IperionX?
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.
We can see that IperionX does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. 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 IperionX's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.
We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in IperionX. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is BNY Mellon Asset Management with 14% of shares outstanding. With 9.7% and 7.7% of the shares outstanding respectively, Fidelity International Ltd and FMR LLC are the second and third largest shareholders. In addition, we found that Anastasios Arima, the CEO has 2.3% of the shares allocated to their name.
We also observed that the top 8 shareholders account for more than half of the share register, with a few smaller shareholders to balance the interests of the larger ones to a certain extent.
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. While there is some analyst coverage, the company is probably not widely covered. So it could gain more attention, down the track.
Insider Ownership Of IperionX
The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. 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.
Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.
Our most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of IperionX Limited. Insiders have a AU$36m stake in this AU$292m business. We would say this shows alignment with shareholders, but it is worth noting that the company is still quite small; some insiders may have founded the business. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.
General Public Ownership
The general public-- including retail investors -- own 48% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.
Next Steps:
It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand IperionX better, we need to consider many other factors. Be aware that IperionX is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 2 of those are a bit concerning...
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.
