Wynnstay Group Plc (LON:WYN) is largely controlled by institutional shareholders who own 54% of the company

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

Wed, Nov 15, 2023, 6:35 AM 4 min read

Key Insights

Institutions' substantial holdings in Wynnstay Group implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price
50% of the business is held by the top 20 shareholders
Ownership research along with analyst forecasts data help provide a good understanding of opportunities in a stock

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Wynnstay Group Plc (LON:WYN), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. With 54% stake, institutions possess the maximum shares in the company. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Since institutional have access to huge amounts of capital, their market moves tend to receive a lot of scrutiny by retail or individual investors. As a result, a sizeable amount of institutional money invested in a firm is generally viewed as a positive attribute.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Wynnstay Group.

See our latest analysis for Wynnstay Group

ownership-breakdown — AIM:WYN Ownership Breakdown November 15th 2023

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Wynnstay Group?

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.

Wynnstay Group already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Wynnstay Group's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

earnings-and-revenue-growth — AIM:WYN Earnings and Revenue Growth November 15th 2023

Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. Wynnstay Group is not owned by hedge funds. The company's largest shareholder is Charles Stanley & Co. Ltd, Asset Management Arm, with ownership of 12%. Close Asset Management Ltd. is the second largest shareholder owning 11% of common stock, and Schroder Investment Management Limited holds about 5.5% of the company stock.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 20 have the combined ownership of 50% in the company, suggesting that no single shareholder has significant control over the company.

Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. 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 Wynnstay Group

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. 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.

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

Our information suggests that Wynnstay Group Plc insiders own under 1% of the company. It has a market capitalization of just UK£90m, and the board has only UK£640k worth of shares in their own names. Many investors in smaller companies prefer to see the board more heavily invested. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 44% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Wynnstay 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 Wynnstay Group better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 3 warning signs for Wynnstay Group (1 makes us a bit uncomfortable!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its future.

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.