I have this pretty loosely held thesis which I think may be a waste of time. Probably more of a confirmation bias rather than anything else
A junior explorer - Tambourah Metals- I've held for a number of years has had a wicked run in the last few weeks on the back of a potential discovery. Just did a quick look at the last few annual reports and thought this was interesting. Don't think there's any value in the findings.
2021 - 574 shareholders
2022 - 1108 shareholders
2023 - 1172 shareholders
2024 - 1095 shareholders
2025 - 1163 shareholders
Would be interested to see whether there's been a big uplift in shareholders or not. Probably a mix of previously disillusioned holders getting out and some new enthusiasm coming in alongside some topping up from existing...
The million dollar question is whether a greater number of shareholders broadens the exposure of the business to more people and therefore increases the demand of the shares, raising the prices.
I have no idea, but thought it would be interesting
Often it's a good idea to also look at their share count history as well @Jarrahman and TMB's SOI has increased every year - as highlighted in the red rectangle below (from commsec):
And that increasing share count is due to multiple capital raisings, with at least 5 of those picked up by ChatGPT just now:
There are likely others that ChatGPT missed plus options that may have been exercised to raise more money and also increase the share count further, but what I am suggesting is that as the company does more and more CRs and promotes itself in order to get those CRs away, the number of individual shareholders will usually increase.
And as an explorer and potential project developer, Tambourah Metals has to generate newsflow to try to keep their share price buoyant so they can raise more capital, so their efforts to promote themselves and the story is always going to attract more eyeballs as they go along.
There is also the phenomenon of IPO participants and others who take large blocks of shares in placements and other CRs wanting to sell down or out at various times either to take profits or because they see better opportunities elsewhere, or just want to diversify their (speculative) investments. This generally results in more shareholders unless there are block trades where one large holder sells a block of shares to another large holder. But generally speaking, as larger holders sell down, the added liquidity allows more retail investors to jump on board at prices they may consider reasonable.
In summary, this increased shareholder base is exactly what I would expect for a company of this nature that is around 4 years into their journey.
And yes, more shareholders tends to breed more shareholders due to word of mouth, especially when you take into account platforms like hotcopper where these sorts of companies usually receive enthusiastic promotion from holders who are either trying to talk up their own books, and/or share the opportunity with others.