Yahoo Finance Following a 7.4% decline over last year, recent gains may please Alcoa Corporation (NYSE:AA) institutional owners
Key Insights
Given the large stake in the stock by institutions, Alcoa's stock price might be vulnerable to their trading decisions
50% of the business is held by the top 17 shareholders
Every investor in Alcoa Corporation (NYSE:AA) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 84% 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.
Institutional investors would appreciate the 6.8% increase in share price last week, given their one-year losses have totalled a disappointing 7.4%.
In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Alcoa.
See our latest analysis for Alcoa
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Alcoa?
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 Alcoa. 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. 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 Alcoa's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.
Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Alcoa. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is BlackRock, Inc. with 12% of shares outstanding. The Vanguard Group, Inc. is the second largest shareholder owning 10% of common stock, and State Street Global Advisors, Inc. holds about 4.6% of the company stock.
After doing some more digging, we found that the top 17 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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.
Insider Ownership Of Alcoa
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. The company management answer to the board and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board themselves.
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 data suggests that insiders own under 1% of Alcoa Corporation in their own names. It's a big company, so even a small proportional interest can create alignment between the board and shareholders. In this case insiders own US$58m worth of shares. Arguably, recent buying and selling is just as important to consider. You can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.
General Public Ownership
The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 15% stake in Alcoa. 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:
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. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 1 warning sign with Alcoa , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.
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.
