To get a sense of who is truly in control of Chesnara plc (LON:CSN), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. We can see that institutions own the lion's share in the company with 82% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.
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.
In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Chesnara.
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Chesnara?
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 Chesnara. 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. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see Chesnara's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.
LSE:CSN Earnings and Revenue Growth April 9th 2025
Investors should note that institutions actually own more than half the company, so they can collectively wield significant power. Chesnara is not owned by hedge funds. The company's largest shareholder is Columbia Management Investment Advisers, LLC, with ownership of 12%. With 9.8% and 8.9% of the shares outstanding respectively, Aberdeen Group Plc and Hargreaves Lansdown Asset Management Ltd. are the second and third largest shareholders.
On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 9 shareholders, suggesting that the interests of the larger shareholders are balanced out to an extent by the smaller ones.
Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. There is some analyst coverage of the stock, but it could still become more well known, with time.
Insider Ownership Of Chesnara
While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.
I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.
Our most recent data indicates that insiders own less than 1% of Chesnara plc. It appears that the board holds about UK£864k worth of stock. This compares to a market capitalization of UK£380m. Many tend to prefer to see a board with bigger shareholdings. A good next step might be to take a look at this free summary of insider buying and selling.
General Public Ownership
With a 17% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Chesnara. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.
If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this freereport on analyst forecasts .
NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.
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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
