In This Article:
Key Insights
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Significantly high institutional ownership implies Wickes Group's stock price is sensitive to their trading actions
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52% of the business is held by the top 16 shareholders
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Analyst forecasts along with ownership data serve to give a strong idea about prospects for a business
Every investor in Wickes Group plc (LON:WIX) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. With 86% stake, institutions possess the maximum shares in the company. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).
Given the vast amount of money and research capacities at their disposal, institutional ownership tends to carry a lot of weight, especially with individual investors. Hence, having a considerable amount of institutional money invested in a company is often regarded as a desirable trait.
Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Wickes Group.
Check out our latest analysis for Wickes Group
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Wickes 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 Wickes Group. 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 Wickes Group's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.
Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences. Wickes Group is not owned by hedge funds. Our data shows that J O Hambro Capital Management Limited is the largest shareholder with 5.5% of shares outstanding. The Vanguard Group, Inc. is the second largest shareholder owning 4.3% of common stock, and BlackRock, Inc. holds about 4.1% of the company stock.
After doing some more digging, we found that the top 16 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.