Key Insights

• Significantly high institutional ownership implies Aurora Innovation's stock price is sensitive to their trading actions
• 51% of the business is held by the top 6 shareholders
• 15% of Aurora Innovation is held by insiders

A look at the shareholders of Aurora Innovation, Inc. (NASDAQ:AUR) can tell us which group is most powerful. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are institutions with 48% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

No shareholder likes losing money on their investments, especially institutional investors who saw their holdings drop 4.2% in value last week. Still, the 39% one-year gains may have helped mitigate their overall losses. We would assume however, that they would be on the lookout for weakness in the future.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Aurora Innovation, beginning with the chart below.

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Aurora Innovation?

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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Aurora Innovation. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. 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 Aurora Innovation's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Aurora Innovation is not owned by hedge funds. Uber Technologies, Inc. is currently the largest shareholder, with 21% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 9.4% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 7.4% by the third-largest shareholder. Christopher Urmson, who is the second-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Chief Executive Officer.

On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 6 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 Aurora Innovation

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.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of Aurora Innovation, Inc.. It has a market capitalization of just US$6.8b, and insiders have US$1.0b worth of shares in their own names. That's quite significant. 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 10% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Aurora Innovation. 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.

Public Company Ownership

It appears to us that public companies own 26% of Aurora Innovation. 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:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Aurora Innovation better, we need to consider many other factors. Case in point: We've spotted 4 warning signs for Aurora Innovation you should be aware of, and 1 of them is a bit concerning.

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.

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