O3 Mining Inc.'s (CVE:OIII) top owners are retail investors with 40% stake, while 23% is held by institutions

Key Insights

• O3 Mining's significant retail investors ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public

• The top 8 shareholders own 51% of the company

• 23% of O3 Mining is held by Institutions

If you want to know who really controls O3 Mining Inc. (CVE:OIII), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. With 40% stake, retail investors possess the maximum shares in the company. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

Meanwhile, institutions make up 23% of the company’s shareholders. Institutions often own shares in more established companies, while it's not unusual to see insiders own a fair bit of smaller companies.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of O3 Mining.

Check out our latest analysis for O3 Mining

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About O3 Mining?

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.

We can see that O3 Mining does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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. 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 O3 Mining's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

O3 Mining is not owned by hedge funds. The company's largest shareholder is Osisko Mining Inc., with ownership of 21%. With 9.7% and 6.2% of the shares outstanding respectively, Franklin Resources, Inc. and Jose Vizquerra Benavides are the second and third largest shareholders. Jose Vizquerra Benavides, who is the third-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Member of the Board of Directors.

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.

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. There are a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future.

Insider Ownership Of O3 Mining

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. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

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 see that insiders own shares in O3 Mining Inc.. As individuals, the insiders collectively own CA$7.8m worth of the CA$134m company. This shows at least some alignment, but we usually like to see larger insider holdings. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 40% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over O3 Mining. 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.

Public Company Ownership

We can see that public companies hold 18% of the O3 Mining shares on issue. This may be a strategic interest and the two companies may have related business interests. It could be that they have de-merged. This holding is probably worth investigating further.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for O3 Mining (of which 1 doesn't sit too well with us!) you should know about.

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.