Sovereign wealth funds account for 52% of Mercury NZ Limited's (NZSE:MCY) ownership, while individual investors account for 37%
In This Article:
Key Insights
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Significant control over Mercury NZ by sovereign wealth funds implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
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New Zealand Superannuation Fund owns 52% of the company
To get a sense of who is truly in control of Mercury NZ Limited (NZSE:MCY), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are sovereign wealth funds with 52% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.
Individual investors, on the other hand, account for 37% of the company's stockholders.
In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Mercury NZ.
See our latest analysis for Mercury NZ
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.
We can see that Mercury NZ 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. 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.
Hedge funds don't have many shares in Mercury NZ. The company's largest shareholder is New Zealand Superannuation Fund, with ownership of 52%. This implies that they have majority interest control of the future of the company. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 2.1% and 1.8% of the stock.
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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.
Insider Ownership Of Mercury NZ
While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.