If you want to know who really controls Net 1 UEPS Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:UEPS), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. Institutions will often hold stock in bigger companies, and we expect to see insiders owning a noticeable percentage of the smaller ones. Companies that have been privatized tend to have low insider ownership.

Net 1 UEPS Technologies is a smaller company with a market capitalization of US$306m, so it may still be flying under the radar of many institutional investors. In the chart below, we can see that institutions are noticeable on the share registry. We can zoom in on the different ownership groups, to learn more about Net 1 UEPS Technologies.

View our latest analysis for Net 1 UEPS Technologies

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Net 1 UEPS Technologies?

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 Net 1 UEPS Technologies. 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. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of Net 1 UEPS Technologies, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Net 1 UEPS Technologies is not owned by hedge funds. Our data shows that Value Capital Partners is the largest shareholder with 23% of shares outstanding. International Finance Corporation is the second largest shareholder owning 14% of common stock, and Goldman Sachs Group, Investment Banking and Securities Investments holds about 7.8% of the company stock. Additionally, the company's CEO Christopher Meyer directly holds 1.3% of the total shares outstanding.

To make our study more interesting, we found that the top 5 shareholders control more than half of the company which implies that this group has considerable sway over the company's decision-making.

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 Net 1 UEPS Technologies

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.