Positive week for Spirax Group plc (LON:SPX) institutional investors who lost 24% over the past year

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

Wed, Nov 27, 2024, 4:03 AM 4 min read

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Spirax Group plc (LON:SPX), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. We can see that institutions own the lion's share in the company with 89% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

Institutional investors would appreciate the 4.4% increase in share price last week, given their one-year losses have totalled a disappointing 24%.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Spirax Group, beginning with the chart below.

View our latest analysis for Spirax Group

ownership-breakdown — LSE:SPX Ownership Breakdown November 27th 2024

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Spirax Group?

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 Spirax Group. 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. 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 Spirax Group's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

earnings-and-revenue-growth — LSE:SPX Earnings and Revenue Growth November 27th 2024

Investors should note that institutions actually own more than half the company, so they can collectively wield significant power. We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Spirax Group. Our data shows that BlackRock, Inc. is the largest shareholder with 9.2% of shares outstanding. Impax Asset Management Group Plc is the second largest shareholder owning 5.1% of common stock, and The Vanguard Group, Inc. holds about 4.8% of the company stock.

Looking at the shareholder registry, we can see that 50% of the ownership is controlled by the top 20 shareholders, meaning that no single shareholder has a majority interest in the ownership.

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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Spirax Group

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 Spirax Group plc insiders own under 1% of the company. Keep in mind that it's a big company, and the insiders own UK£3.7m worth of shares. The absolute value might be more important than the proportional share. It is always good to see at least some insider ownership, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 11% stake in Spirax Group. 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 Spirax Group better, we need to consider many other factors. To that end, you should be aware of the 1 warning sign we've spotted with Spirax Group .

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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.