Advertisement
Canada markets closed
  • S&P/TSX

    22,308.93
    -66.90 (-0.30%)
     
  • S&P 500

    5,222.68
    +8.60 (+0.16%)
     
  • DOW

    39,512.84
    +125.08 (+0.32%)
     
  • CAD/USD

    0.7317
    +0.0006 (+0.08%)
     
  • CRUDE OIL

    78.20
    -1.06 (-1.34%)
     
  • Bitcoin CAD

    83,281.65
    -2,721.44 (-3.16%)
     
  • CMC Crypto 200

    1,259.53
    -98.48 (-7.25%)
     
  • GOLD FUTURES

    2,366.90
    +26.60 (+1.14%)
     
  • RUSSELL 2000

    2,059.78
    -13.85 (-0.67%)
     
  • 10-Yr Bond

    4.5040
    +0.0550 (+1.24%)
     
  • NASDAQ

    16,340.87
    -5.40 (-0.03%)
     
  • VOLATILITY

    12.55
    -0.14 (-1.10%)
     
  • FTSE

    8,433.76
    +52.41 (+0.63%)
     
  • NIKKEI 225

    38,229.11
    +155.13 (+0.41%)
     
  • CAD/EUR

    0.6789
    +0.0011 (+0.16%)
     

Shareholders Should Check If Insiders Own Shares In Enbridge Inc (TSE:ENB)

If you want to know who really controls Enbridge Inc (TSE:ENB), then you’ll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. Large companies usually have institutions as shareholders, and we usually see insiders owning shares in smaller companies. We also tend to see lower insider ownership in companies that were previously publicly owned.

Enbridge has a market capitalization of CA$76.96b, so it’s too big to fly under the radar. We’d expect to see both institutions and retail investors owning a portion of the company. Taking a look at the our data on the ownership groups (below), it’s seems that institutions are noticeable on the share registry. Let’s delve deeper into each type of owner, to discover more about ENB.

View our latest analysis for Enbridge

TSX:ENB Ownership Summary September 11th 18
TSX:ENB Ownership Summary September 11th 18

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Enbridge?

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.

ADVERTISEMENT

We can see that Enbridge does have institutional investors; and they hold 63.5% of the 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. 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 Enbridge’s historic earnings and revenue, below, but keep in mind there’s always more to the story.

TSX:ENB Income Statement Export September 11th 18
TSX:ENB Income Statement Export September 11th 18

Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. Enbridge is not owned by hedge funds. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Enbridge

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. 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 most recent data indicates that insiders own less than 1% of Enbridge Inc. We do note, however, it is possible insiders have an indirect interest through a private company or other corporate structure. As it is a large company, we’d only expect insiders to own a small percentage of it. But it’s worth noting that they own CA$146.6m 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 holds a 34.4% stake in ENB. 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:

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.

Many find it useful to take an in depth look at how a company has performed in the past. You can access this detailed graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow .

If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow of shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its 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.

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.