In This Article:
Key Insights
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Significant control over Sasol by individual investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
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51% of the business is held by the top 9 shareholders
A look at the shareholders of Sasol Limited (JSE:SOL) can tell us which group is most powerful. With 38% stake, individual investors possess the maximum shares in the company. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.
And institutions on the other hand have a 36% ownership in the company. Generally speaking, as a company grows, institutions will increase their ownership. Conversely, insiders often decrease their ownership over time.
Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Sasol.
View our latest analysis for Sasol
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Sasol?
Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index.
As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Sasol. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of Sasol, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.
Hedge funds don't have many shares in Sasol. Public Investment Corporation Limited is currently the largest shareholder, with 18% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 8.3% and 6.3%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.
We also observed that the top 9 shareholders account for more than half of the share register, with a few smaller shareholders to balance the interests of the larger ones to a certain extent.
While it makes sense to study institutional ownership data for a company, it also makes sense to study analyst sentiments to know which way the wind is blowing. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.
Insider Ownership Of Sasol
The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.