Some musings on a rainy Sat morn in Victoria-Have spent some...

Some musings on a rainy Sat morn in Victoria-
Have spent some time looking at total shareholders numbers back to 2019 they are remarkably consistent which is of concern to me.
Eg: 2019 Total S/H 2187 2023 Total S/H 2375 Increase 8% approx from low base.
If we look at the shareholders in the 1>1000 range they have increased from 1258 in 2019 to 1373 in 2023 an increase of 9% I think we can discount this cohort as I don't consider them very important in the overall scheme of things
Below all from 2019 through 2023 Annual Report (not sure if recent announcements have affected said numbers)
The 1k>5k group an increase from 549 to 575 plus 5%
The 5k >10k group an increase from 186 to 196 plus 5%
The 10k >100k group an increase from 159 to 194 plus 22% (in my opinion probably mostly existing holders increasing their stake)
The >100k group an increase from 35 to 37 plus 8%
The intervening years show little disparity from year to year

My takeaways:
The shareholder base is vey concentrated and sticky but small
The company has failed to garner much interest outside of existing share holders
A lot of shares seem to be traded internally between existing shareholders or existing shareholders take up the few on offer
Very few existing shareholders of significant parcels have folded their hands
As mentioned this company flies under the radar with respect to retail punters but funds/institutional/sophisticated traders all know about it but ignore it
No super fund would look at this stock (self managed excepted), no lender would advance a margin loan against this stock
Without FredCo the company would have gone broke years ago or the SOI would be in the hundreds of millions even billions so very much a penny stock

AGM - From 11.30 am when the demo news was released until the pause in trading at 1 pm ,approx 30k shares changed hands I wonder how many of the 60 odd shareholders at the meeting pushed the buy button in expectation? I bought another tranche at $10.25 on the news
I am somewhat disappointed with the price action and more so volume following the most positive update in years not withstanding the 59% jump from $8.80 to $14 for the week as mentioned there is plenty of supply around the $14 mark and I would not be surprised to see a drift back to the $12 range next week (hope I'm wrong)
I think until the stock price can clear the $17/$18 region where I think quite a few retail investors started to be burnt, the supply will continue to outstrip demand.
I personally have almost doubled my holdings from $17 all the way down to $7.50 and was still buying on Friday though just about finished and fully loaded from my perspective
Without any significant news before the Gen 2 chips have been received, tested and demonstrated in late July, August or September we are back to the waiting game but with much more confidence than a week ago.
If as expected the share price continues to increase on receipt of positive news it becomes harder and harder for new investors to take a position of significance and in my opinion the company needs a much broader spread of new investors but as I have previously mentioned the low shares on issue and lack of liquidity creates extreme volatility and in my case angst at the wildly fluctuating share price.
Any significant cap raise gong forward without a SPP dilutes existing holders and how many existing holders can keep pace if as mentioned the SOI double (still only 60 mill) not enough to increase liquidity if existing shareholders double down and a few more sophisticate's/small funds join the party for the long haul. Does the company need a 10/1 split for 300mill shares at $1.40 in todays money?
As mentioned 200 odd shareholders hold 85-90% of SOI and as outlined above the vast majority of these are rusted on supporters it leaves about 10-15% or 3 to 4 mill shares as free float which in my view is not enough for any ASX company as @@bocasubi said no institution would touch it because you cant get out and as the Eagles wrote way back in '76 (Hotel California) "you can check out anytime you like but you can never leave"
I remain one of the rusted on and am excited by the potential of this amazing tech but I'm also a realist and concerned about the somewhat narrow shareholder base and general lack of interest from retail and industry funds in Australia.
AKP for the win!