Key Insights

• Significantly high institutional ownership implies Genco Shipping & Trading's stock price is sensitive to their trading actions
• The top 25 shareholders own 49% of the company
• Recent sales by insiders

If you want to know who really controls Genco Shipping & Trading Limited (NYSE:GNK), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 62% to be precise, is institutions. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

No shareholder likes losing money on their investments, especially institutional investors who saw their holdings drop 5.9% in value last week. However, the 51% one-year returns may have helped alleviate their overall losses. They should, however, be mindful of further losses in the future.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Genco Shipping & Trading.

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Genco Shipping & Trading?

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 Genco Shipping & Trading. 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 Genco Shipping & Trading's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Investors should note that institutions actually own more than half the company, so they can collectively wield significant power. Genco Shipping & Trading is not owned by hedge funds. Our data shows that BlackRock, Inc. is the largest shareholder with 8.0% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 6.6% and 2.8%, of the shares outstanding, respectively. Furthermore, CEO John Wobensmith is the owner of 1.1% of the company's shares.

On studying our ownership data, we found that 25 of the top shareholders collectively own less than 50% of the share register, implying that no single individual has a majority interest.

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. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of Genco Shipping & Trading

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.

We can report that insiders do own shares in Genco Shipping & Trading Limited. As individuals, the insiders collectively own US$20m worth of the US$907m company. Some would say this shows alignment of interests between shareholders and the board. But it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 36% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Genco Shipping & Trading. 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:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Be aware that Genco Shipping & Trading is showing 4 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those doesn't sit too well with us...

If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its 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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com