Key Insights

• GR Engineering Services' significant insider ownership suggests inherent interests in company's expansion

• The top 9 shareholders own 53% of the company

• Institutions own 19% of GR Engineering Services

Every investor in GR Engineering Services Limited (ASX:GNG) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. With 34% stake, individual insiders possess the maximum shares in the company. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

So it follows, every decision made by insiders of GR Engineering Services regarding the company's future would be crucial to them.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of GR Engineering Services.

View our latest analysis for GR Engineering Services

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About GR Engineering Services?

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.

GR Engineering Services already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. This implies the analysts working for those institutions have looked at the stock and they like it. But just like anyone else, they could be wrong. 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 GR Engineering Services' earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in GR Engineering Services. From our data, we infer that the largest shareholder is David Sala Tenna (who also holds the title of Chief Operating Officer) with 7.4% of shares outstanding. Its usually considered a good sign when insiders own a significant number of shares in the company, and in this case, we're glad to see a company insider play the role of a key stakeholder. The second and third largest shareholders are Colonial First State Investments Limited and First Sentier Investors (Australia) IM Ltd, with an equal amount of shares to their name at 6.4%. In addition, we found that Tony Patrizi, the CEO has 5.9% of the shares allocated to their name.

We did some more digging and found that 9 of the top shareholders account for roughly 53% of the register, implying that along with larger shareholders, there are a few smaller shareholders, thereby balancing out each others interests somewhat.

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. As far as we can tell there isn't analyst coverage of the company, so it is probably flying under the radar.

Insider Ownership Of GR Engineering Services

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 a reasonable proportion of GR Engineering Services Limited. Insiders own AU$127m worth of shares in the AU$376m company. This may suggest that the founders still own a lot of shares. You can click here to see if they have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 26% stake in GR Engineering Services. 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.

Private Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 21%, of the shares on issue. It might be worth looking deeper into this. If related parties, such as insiders, have an interest in one of these private companies, that should be disclosed in the annual report. Private companies may also have a strategic interest in the company.

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. Case in point: We've spotted 2 warning signs for GR Engineering Services you should be aware of, and 1 of them is a bit unpleasant.

Of course this may not be the best stock to buy. Therefore, you may wish to see our free collection of interesting prospects boasting favorable financials.

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.