What You Need To Know About Pulse Biosciences, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:PLSE) Investor Composition
A look at the shareholders of Pulse Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLSE) can tell us which group is most powerful. Institutions often own shares in more established companies, while it's not unusual to see insiders own a fair bit of smaller companies. I generally like to see some degree of insider ownership, even if only a little. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb said, 'Don’t tell me what you think, tell me what you have in your portfolio.
Pulse Biosciences is not a large company by global standards. It has a market capitalization of US$431m, which means it wouldn't have the attention of many institutional investors. Taking a look at our data on the ownership groups (below), it seems that institutions are noticeable on the share registry. We can zoom in on the different ownership groups, to learn more about Pulse Biosciences.
Check out our latest analysis for Pulse Biosciences
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Pulse Biosciences?
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.
We can see that Pulse Biosciences 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. 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 Pulse Biosciences' earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.
Hedge funds don't have many shares in Pulse Biosciences. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Robert Duggan with 44% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 4.6% and 3.6%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.
To make our study more interesting, we found that the top 3 shareholders have a majority ownership in the company, meaning that they are powerful enough to influence the decisions of the company.
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 is some analyst coverage of the stock, but it could still become more well known, with time.
Insider Ownership Of Pulse Biosciences
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.
It seems that insiders own more than half the Pulse Biosciences, Inc. stock. This gives them a lot of power. Given it has a market cap of US$431m, that means they have US$220m worth of shares. It is good to see this level of investment. You can check here to see if those insiders have been buying recently.
General Public Ownership
With a 36% ownership, the general public have some degree of sway over Pulse Biosciences. 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:
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. Take risks for example - Pulse Biosciences has 5 warning signs (and 2 which can't be ignored) we think 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.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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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