Yahoo Finance A fantastic week for Edwards Lifesciences Corporation's (NYSE:EW) 84% institutional owners, one-year returns continue to impress
Key Insights
Given the large stake in the stock by institutions, Edwards Lifesciences' stock price might be vulnerable to their trading decisions
50% of the business is held by the top 25 shareholders
Every investor in Edwards Lifesciences Corporation (NYSE:EW) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. We can see that institutions own the lion's share in the company with 84% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).
And as as result, institutional investors reaped the most rewards after the company's stock price gained 6.0% last week. The gains from last week would have further boosted the one-year return to shareholders which currently stand at 0.7%.
Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Edwards Lifesciences.
Check out our latest analysis for Edwards Lifesciences
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Edwards Lifesciences?
Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices.
As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Edwards Lifesciences. 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 Edwards Lifesciences' historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.
Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Edwards Lifesciences. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is The Vanguard Group, Inc. with 8.8% of shares outstanding. BlackRock, Inc. is the second largest shareholder owning 8.7% of common stock, and State Street Global Advisors, Inc. holds about 4.4% of the company stock.
After doing some more digging, we found that the top 25 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 Edwards Lifesciences
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. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.
I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.
Our data suggests that insiders own under 1% of Edwards Lifesciences Corporation in their own names. Being so large, we would not expect insiders to own a large proportion of the stock. Collectively, they own US$477m of stock. In this sort of situation, it can be more interesting to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.
General Public Ownership
The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 15% stake in Edwards Lifesciences. 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:
While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for Edwards Lifesciences that you should be aware of.
But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter 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.
