To get a sense of who is truly in control of ASML Holding N.V. (AMS:ASML), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are institutions with 54% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Since institutional have access to huge amounts of capital, their market moves tend to receive a lot of scrutiny by retail or individual investors. Hence, having a considerable amount of institutional money invested in a company is often regarded as a desirable trait.

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

Check out our latest analysis for ASML Holding

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About ASML Holding?

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.

ASML Holding already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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. 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 ASML Holding's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences. Hedge funds don't have many shares in ASML Holding. The company's largest shareholder is BlackRock, Inc., with ownership of 6.3%. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 3.7% and 3.2% of the stock.

On studying our ownership data, we found that 25 of the top shareholders collectively own less than 50% of the share register, implying that no single individual has a majority interest.

While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of ASML Holding

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.