The considerable ownership by individual investors in Mutares SE KGaA indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
41% of the business is held by the top 25 shareholders
If you want to know who really controls Mutares SE & Co. KGaA (ETR:MUX), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. With 59% stake, individual investors possess the maximum shares in the company. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).
And individual insiders on the other hand have a 25% ownership in the company. Large companies usually have institutions as shareholders, and we usually see insiders owning shares in smaller companies.
Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Mutares SE KGaA, beginning with the chart below.
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Mutares SE KGaA?
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.
We can see that Mutares SE KGaA does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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 Mutares SE KGaA, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.
Hedge funds don't have many shares in Mutares SE KGaA. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is the CEO Robin Laik with 25% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 9.8% and 1.5% of the stock.
Our studies suggest that the top 25 shareholders collectively control less than half of the company's shares, meaning that the company's shares are widely disseminated and there is no dominant shareholder.
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.
Insider Ownership Of Mutares SE KGaA
The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.
Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.
Our most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of Mutares SE & Co. KGaA. It has a market capitalization of just €502m, and insiders have €124m worth of shares in their own names. This may suggest that the founders still own a lot of shares. You can click here to see if they have been buying or selling.
General Public Ownership
The general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, collectively holds 59% of Mutares SE KGaA shares. This size of ownership gives investors from the general public some collective power. They can and probably do influence decisions on executive compensation, dividend policies and proposed business acquisitions.
Private Company Ownership
We can see that Private Companies own 9.8%, of the shares on issue. Private companies may be related parties. Sometimes insiders have an interest in a public company through a holding in a private company, rather than in their own capacity as an individual. While it's hard to draw any broad stroke conclusions, it is worth noting as an area for further research.
Next Steps:
While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Case in point: We've spotted 5 warning signs for Mutares SE KGaA you should be aware of, and 3 of them make us uncomfortable.
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.