Every investor in Games Workshop Group PLC (LON:GAW) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. With 87% stake, institutions possess the maximum shares in the company. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

And institutional investors saw their holdings value drop by 3.8% last week. The recent loss, which adds to a one-year loss of 37% for stockholders, may not sit well with this group of investors. Often called “market makers”, institutions wield significant power in influencing the price dynamics of any stock. Hence, if weakness in Games Workshop Group's share price continues, institutional investors may feel compelled to sell the stock, which might not be ideal for individual investors.

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

View our latest analysis for Games Workshop Group

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Games Workshop Group?

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.

Games Workshop Group already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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. 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 Games Workshop Group's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Games Workshop Group. The company's largest shareholder is Baillie Gifford & Co., with ownership of 10.0%. Schroder Investment Management Limited is the second largest shareholder owning 5.9% of common stock, and BlackRock, Inc. holds about 5.0% of the company stock.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 15 have the combined ownership of 52% in the company, suggesting that no single shareholder has significant control over the company.

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 a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future.