Morphic Holding, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:MORF) large institutional owners must be happy as stock continues to impress, up 4.4% over the past week
Key Insights
Given the large stake in the stock by institutions, Morphic Holding's stock price might be vulnerable to their trading decisions
50% of the business is held by the top 6 shareholders
If you want to know who really controls Morphic Holding, Inc. (NASDAQ:MORF), 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 60% 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.
And last week, institutional investors ended up benefitting the most after the company hit US$2.8b in market cap. The gains from last week would have further boosted the one-year return to shareholders which currently stand at 87%.
Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Morphic Holding.
Check out our latest analysis for Morphic Holding
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Morphic Holding?
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 Morphic Holding does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of Morphic Holding, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.
Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences. Our data indicates that hedge funds own 8.0% of Morphic Holding. That worth noting, since hedge funds are often quite active investors, who may try to influence management. Many want to see value creation (and a higher share price) in the short term or medium term. From our data, we infer that the largest shareholder is Timothy Springer (who also holds the title of Top Key Executive) with 16% of shares outstanding. Its usually considered a good sign when insiders own a significant number of shares in the company, and in this case, we're glad to see a company insider play the role of a key stakeholder. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 12% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 8.0% by the third-largest shareholder. Additionally, the company's CEO Praveen Tipirneni directly holds 1.3% of the total shares outstanding.
We also observed that the top 6 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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.
Insider Ownership Of Morphic Holding
While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. 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.
It seems insiders own a significant proportion of Morphic Holding, Inc.. It has a market capitalization of just US$2.8b, and insiders have US$507m worth of shares in their own names. That's quite significant. Most would say this shows a good degree of alignment with shareholders, especially in a company of this size. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.
General Public Ownership
With a 14% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Morphic Holding. 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:
It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Morphic Holding better, we need to consider many other factors. Be aware that Morphic Holding is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those is a bit unpleasant...
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.
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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.
