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High Liner Foods Incorporated's (TSE:HLF) largest shareholders are retail investors with 55% ownership, private companies own 35%

Key Insights

  • High Liner Foods' significant retail investors ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public

  • 45% of the business is held by the top 25 shareholders

  • Insiders have been selling lately

If you want to know who really controls High Liner Foods Incorporated (TSE:HLF), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are retail investors with 55% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Private companies, on the other hand, account for 35% of the company's stockholders.

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Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about High Liner Foods.

Check out our latest analysis for High Liner Foods

ownership-breakdown
ownership-breakdown

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About High Liner Foods?

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 High Liner Foods. 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 High Liner Foods' earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

earnings-and-revenue-growth
earnings-and-revenue-growth

High Liner Foods is not owned by hedge funds. Our data shows that Thornridge Holdings Limited is the largest shareholder with 35% of shares outstanding. Beutel Goodman & Company Ltd. is the second largest shareholder owning 2.2% of common stock, and Dimensional Fund Advisors LP holds about 2.0% of the company stock.

On studying our ownership data, we found that 25 of the top shareholders collectively own less than 50% of the share register, implying that no single individual has a majority interest.

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 is a little analyst coverage of the stock, but not much. So there is room for it to gain more coverage.

Insider Ownership Of High Liner Foods

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.

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.

We can report that insiders do own shares in High Liner Foods Incorporated. It has a market capitalization of just CA$493m, and insiders have CA$16m worth of shares, in their own names. It is good to see some investment by insiders, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.

General Public Ownership

The general public -- including retail investors -- own 55% of High Liner Foods. This level of ownership gives investors from the wider public some 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 35%, 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:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Be aware that High Liner Foods is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 2 of those are 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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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.

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