Every investor in Atlas Technical Consultants, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATCX) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. With 62% stake, individual investors possess the maximum shares in the company. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).
While the holdings of individual investors took a hit after last week’s 16% price drop, institutions with their 22% holdings also suffered.
Let’s delve deeper into each type of owner of Atlas Technical Consultants, beginning with the chart below.
However if you’d rather see where the opportunities and risks are within ATCX’s industry, you can check out our analysis on the US Professional Services industry.
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Atlas Technical Consultants?
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 Atlas Technical Consultants. 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 Atlas Technical Consultants’ historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there’s always more to the story.
We note that hedge funds don’t have a meaningful investment in Atlas Technical Consultants. Blackstone Inc. is currently the company’s largest shareholder with 6.0% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 5.9% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 4.5% by the third-largest shareholder.
A deeper look at our ownership data shows that the top 25 shareholders collectively hold less than half of the register, suggesting a large group of small holders where no single shareholder has a majority.
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 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 Atlas Technical Consultants
While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.
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.
Shareholders would probably be interested to learn that insiders own shares in Atlas Technical Consultants, Inc.. In their own names, insiders own US$8.6m worth of stock in the US$276m company. This shows at least some alignment. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.
General Public Ownership
The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a substantial 62% stake in Atlas Technical Consultants, suggesting it is a fairly popular stock. This size of ownership gives investors from the general public some collective power. They can and probably do influence decisions on executive compensation, dividend policies and proposed business acquisitions.
Private Equity Ownership
Private equity firms hold a 12% stake in Atlas Technical Consultants. This suggests they can be influential in key policy decisions. Sometimes we see private equity stick around for the long term, but generally speaking they have a shorter investment horizon and — as the name suggests — don’t invest in public companies much. After some time they may look to sell and redeploy capital elsewhere.
Next Steps:
It’s always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Atlas Technical Consultants better, we need to consider many other factors. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we’ve spotted 2 warning signs for Atlas Technical Consultants (of which 1 shouldn’t be ignored!) you should know about.
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.
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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.
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