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Key Insights

• Institutions' substantial holdings in Marston's implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price

• 44% of the business is held by the top 25 shareholders

• Analyst forecasts along with ownership data serve to give a strong idea about prospects for a business

If you want to know who really controls Marston's PLC (LON:MARS), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are institutions with 58% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

Since institutional have access to huge amounts of capital, their market moves tend to receive a lot of scrutiny by retail or individual investors. Therefore, a good portion of institutional money invested in the company is usually a huge vote of confidence on its future.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Marston's.

See our latest analysis for Marston's

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Marston's?

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 Marston's. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. 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 Marston's' earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. Hedge funds don't have many shares in Marston's. The company's largest shareholder is Goldman Sachs Group, Investment Banking and Securities Investments, with ownership of 4.8%. HSBC Global Asset Management (UK) Limited is the second largest shareholder owning 3.8% of common stock, and HBOS Investment Fund Managers Limited holds about 3.7% of the company stock.

A deeper look at our ownership data shows that the top 25 shareholders collectively hold less than half of the register, suggesting a large group of small holders where no single shareholder has a majority.

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. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.