Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by individual investors in DiaMedica Therapeutics indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• 50% of the business is held by the top 8 shareholders
• Insiders own 39% of DiaMedica Therapeutics

If you want to know who really controls DiaMedica Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:DMAC), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. With 43% 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 11% price drop, insiders with their 39% also suffered.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about DiaMedica Therapeutics.

See our latest analysis for DiaMedica Therapeutics

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About DiaMedica Therapeutics?

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 DiaMedica Therapeutics. 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 DiaMedica Therapeutics' earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

It looks like hedge funds own 5.1% of DiaMedica Therapeutics shares. That worth noting, since hedge funds are often quite active investors, who may try to influence management. Many want to see value creation (and a higher share price) in the short term or medium term. The company's largest shareholder is Thomas von Koch, with ownership of 13%. Jan Stahlberg is the second largest shareholder owning 12% of common stock, and Richard Jacinto holds about 11% of the company stock.

We did some more digging and found that 8 of the top shareholders account for roughly 50% 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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of DiaMedica Therapeutics

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.

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.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of DiaMedica Therapeutics Inc.. Insiders have a US$86m stake in this US$222m business. We would say this shows alignment with shareholders, but it is worth noting that the company is still quite small; some insiders may have founded the business. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 43% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand DiaMedica Therapeutics better, we need to consider many other factors. Be aware that DiaMedica Therapeutics is showing 4 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 2 of those are a bit concerning...

If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.

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.