Mercury NZ Limited's (NZSE:MCY) largest shareholders are state or government with 51% ownership, individual investors own 37%

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editorial-team@simplywallst.com (Simply Wall St)

Tue, Mar 25, 2025, 8:05 PM 4 min read

If you want to know who really controls Mercury NZ Limited (NZSE:MCY), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. We can see that state or government own the lion's share in the company with 51% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

And individual investors on the other hand have a 37% ownership in the company.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Mercury NZ.

See our latest analysis for Mercury NZ

ownership-breakdown — NZSE:MCY Ownership Breakdown March 26th 2025

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Mercury NZ?

Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Mercury NZ. 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. 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 Mercury NZ, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

earnings-and-revenue-growth — NZSE:MCY Earnings and Revenue Growth March 26th 2025

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Mercury NZ. Our data shows that New Zealand is the largest shareholder with 51% of shares outstanding. This implies that they have majority interest control of the future of the company. With 2.0% and 1.5% of the shares outstanding respectively, The Vanguard Group, Inc. and Accident Compensation Corporation, Asset Management Arm are the second and third largest shareholders.

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

Insider Ownership Of Mercury NZ

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. The company management answer to the board and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board themselves.

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 information suggests that Mercury NZ Limited insiders own under 1% of the company. Keep in mind that it's a big company, and the insiders own NZ$3.2m worth of shares. The absolute value might be more important than the proportional share. Arguably, recent buying and selling is just as important to consider. You can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 37% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Mercury NZ. 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.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Mercury NZ better, we need to consider many other factors. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for Mercury NZ you should know about.

If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report 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.