What Kind Of Shareholder Appears On The Diamond Estates Wines & Spirits Inc’s (CVE:DWS) Shareholder Register?
A look at the shareholders of Diamond Estates Wines & Spirits Inc (CVE:DWS) can tell us which group is most powerful. Institutions often own shares in more established companies, while it’s not unusual to see insiders own a fair bit of smaller companies. Warren Buffett said that he likes ‘a business with enduring competitive advantages that is run by able and owner-oriented people’. So it’s nice to see some insider ownership, because it may suggest that management is owner-oriented.
With a market capitalization of CA$36m, Diamond Estates Wines & Spirits is a small cap stock, so it might not be well known by many institutional investors. Our analysis of the ownership of the company, below, shows that institutions are not on the share registry. We can zoom in on the different ownership groups, to learn more about DWS.
Check out our latest analysis for Diamond Estates Wines & Spirits
What Does The Lack Of Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Diamond Estates Wines & Spirits?
Institutional investors often avoid companies that are too small, too illiquid or too risky for their tastes. But it’s unusual to see larger companies without any institutional investors.
There are many reasons why a company might not have any institutions on the share registry. It may be hard for institutions to buy large amounts of shares, if liquidity (the amount of shares traded each day) is low. If the company has not needed to raise capital, institutions might lack the opportunity to build a position. On the other hand, it’s always possible that professional investors are avoiding a company because they don’t think it’s the best place for their money. Diamond Estates Wines & Spirits might not have the sort of past performance institutions are looking for, or perhaps they simply have not studied the business closely.
Hedge funds don’t have many shares in Diamond Estates Wines & Spirits. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.
Insider Ownership Of Diamond Estates Wines & Spirits
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.
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.
I can report that insiders do own shares in Diamond Estates Wines & Spirits Inc. It has a market capitalization of just CA$36m, and insiders have CA$2.4m worth of shares, in their own names. Some would say this shows alignment of interests between shareholders and the board, though I generally prefer to see bigger insider holdings. But it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.
General Public Ownership
The general public — mostly retail investors — own 75% of Diamond Estates Wines & Spirits . This level of ownership gives retail investors the power to sway key policy decisions such as board composition, executive compensation, and the dividend payout ratio.
Private Company Ownership
We can see that Private Companies own 18%, of the shares on issue. 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 Diamond Estates Wines & Spirits better, we need to consider many other factors.
I like to dive deeper into how a company has performed in the past. You can find historic revenue and earnings in this detailed graph.
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.
To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.
The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
