Key Insights

• Hamilton Thorne's significant retail investors ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public

• A total of 22 investors have a majority stake in the company with 49% ownership

• Insiders own 16% of Hamilton Thorne

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Hamilton Thorne Ltd. (TSE:HTL), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are retail investors with 51% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

And institutions on the other hand have a 33% ownership in the company. Generally speaking, as a company grows, institutions will increase their ownership. Conversely, insiders often decrease their ownership over time.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Hamilton Thorne, beginning with the chart below.

See our latest analysis for Hamilton Thorne

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Hamilton Thorne?

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.

Hamilton Thorne already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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. 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 Hamilton Thorne, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Hamilton Thorne. Daniel Thorne is currently the largest shareholder, with 13% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 12% and 9.7% of the stock.

Our studies suggest that the top 22 shareholders collectively control less than half of the company's shares, meaning that the company's shares are widely disseminated and there is no dominant shareholder.

While it makes sense to study institutional ownership data for a company, it also makes sense to study analyst sentiments to know which way the wind is blowing. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Hamilton Thorne

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.