Unlock stock picks and a broker-level newsfeed that powers Wall Street.
Johnson Matthey Plc (LON:JMAT) is a favorite amongst institutional investors who own 86%

In This Article:

Key Insights

  • Given the large stake in the stock by institutions, Johnson Matthey's stock price might be vulnerable to their trading decisions

  • A total of 12 investors have a majority stake in the company with 52% ownership

  • Insiders have bought recently

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Johnson Matthey Plc (LON:JMAT), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 86% to be precise, is institutions. 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. Hence, having a considerable amount of institutional money invested in a company is often regarded as a desirable trait.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Johnson Matthey.

View our latest analysis for Johnson Matthey

ownership-breakdown
LSE:JMAT Ownership Breakdown February 6th 2025

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Johnson Matthey?

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 Johnson Matthey does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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 Johnson Matthey's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

earnings-and-revenue-growth
LSE:JMAT Earnings and Revenue Growth February 6th 2025

Investors should note that institutions actually own more than half the company, so they can collectively wield significant power. Hedge funds don't have many shares in Johnson Matthey. BlackRock, Inc. is currently the company's largest shareholder with 10% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 8.8% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 5.9% by the third-largest shareholder.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 12 have the combined ownership of 52% in the company, suggesting that no single shareholder has significant control over the company.