Yahoo Finance Here's What Gulf Keystone Petroleum Limited's (LON:GKP) Shareholder Ownership Structure Looks Like
The big shareholder groups in Gulf Keystone Petroleum Limited (LON:GKP) have power over the company. Institutions often own shares in more established companies, while it's not unusual to see insiders own a fair bit of smaller companies. We also tend to see lower insider ownership in companies that were previously publicly owned.
With a market capitalization of UK£541m, Gulf Keystone Petroleum is a small cap stock, so it might not be well known by many institutional investors. In the chart below, we can see that institutions are noticeable on the share registry. We can zoom in on the different ownership groups, to learn more about Gulf Keystone Petroleum.
View our latest analysis for Gulf Keystone Petroleum
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Gulf Keystone Petroleum?
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.
As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Gulf Keystone Petroleum. 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 Gulf Keystone Petroleum's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.
Our data indicates that hedge funds own 15% of Gulf Keystone Petroleum. 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. Lansdowne Partners Limited is currently the largest shareholder, with 15% of shares outstanding. With 10% and 6.3% of the shares outstanding respectively, Hof Hoorneman Bankiers N.V. and UBS Asset Management are the second and third largest shareholders.
On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 8 shareholders, suggesting that the interests of the larger shareholders are balanced out to an extent by the smaller ones.
Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.
Insider Ownership Of Gulf Keystone Petroleum
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.
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 information suggests that Gulf Keystone Petroleum Limited insiders own under 1% of the company. But they may have an indirect interest through a corporate structure that we haven't picked up on. It appears that the board holds about UK£1.7m worth of stock. This compares to a market capitalization of UK£541m. Many investors in smaller companies prefer to see the board more heavily invested. You can click here to see if those insiders 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 Gulf Keystone Petroleum. 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 Gulf Keystone Petroleum better, we need to consider many other factors. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 2 warning signs with Gulf Keystone Petroleum (at least 1 which is concerning) , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.
Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.
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.
