When looking at shares in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) the amount of insider ownership may not pop up as a consideration. Yet, a company's share price can be influenced by how much insider support it has.
Firstly, insiders are directors, officers, and employees of the company. As such, these individuals are likely to have the most up-to-date understanding of how the company is performing. Likewise, while no one can tell the future, insiders usually have the clearest vision of it – after all, they are the ones making it happen.
Secondly, high insider ownership typically puts upwards pressure on a share price in the event of a good news catalyst. The reason being, there are fewer liquid shares available for investors to get a hold of.
Let's take a look at the top 3 ASX 200 shares with insider ownership.
ASX 200 shares with the highest insider ownership
Platinum Asset Management Ltd (ASX: PTM)
Platinum Asset Management is an Australia-based investment manager that focuses on international shares. The company reported having $23.5 billion in funds under management (FUM) at the end of June.
The ASX 200 constituent suffered a selloff in its share price in the past month. This might have something to do with the $167 million of net outflows experienced by the fund during June.
However, the fund manager can boast insider ownership of above 50%. At the time of writing, 50.4% of shares on offer are held by individual insiders. Nearly all of these holdings are held by Andrew Clifford (CEO and co-founder), Kerr Neilson (founder), and Judith Neilson.
Pro Medicus Limited (ASX: PME)
The next company on the list is healthcare imaging software provider, Pro Medicus. Shares in this ASX 200 company have multiplied shareholders' wealth many times over during the last 5 or so years.
Across the past 12 months, Pro Medicus has signed several high-value contracts with healthcare providers, the most recent being a $14 million 8-year deal with the University of Vermont. As a result, shares have continued to surge to all-time highs.
Attesting to the conviction of the founders, Sam Hupert and Anthony Hall still hold 52% of outstanding shares between the two of them. The total amount of insider ownership of this ASX 200 share comes in at 56.05%.
Netwealth Group Ltd (ASX: NWL)
Finally, the company with the highest amount of insider ownership in our list is Netwealth. For those unfamiliar with it, Netwealth is a fintech company offering a platform for superannuation funds.
According to its latest quarterly update, the company's funds under administration stood at $47.1 billion at the end of June. Impressively, this reflected a 12.7% increase from the previous quarter. Additionally, the result placed Netwealth as the sixth largest and fastest-growing platform provider by net inflows in Australia.
Having said that, it's not hard to see why co-CEO Michael Heine has maintained a 55.56% ownership in this ASX 200 share. With the highest insider ownership in the index, Netwealth has 58.13% insider ownership.
