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Do Institutions Own Shares In Kingfisher plc (LON:KGF)?

In this article, I will take a quick look at Kingfisher plc’s (LON:KGF) recent ownership structure – an unconventional investing subject, but an important one. A company’s ownership structure is often linked to its share performance in both the long- and short-term. Different types of investors can have varying degrees of influence on a company’s management team. For example, an active institutional investor may be more likely to hold a company accountable for certain actions whereas a passive fund will move in and out of stocks without regards to corporate governance. The implications of these institutions’ actions can either benefit or hinder individual investors, so it is important to understand the ownership composition of your stock investment. Therefore, it is beneficial for us to examine KGF’s ownership structure in more detail.

Check out our latest analysis for Kingfisher

LSE:KGF Ownership Summary August 30th 18
LSE:KGF Ownership Summary August 30th 18

Institutional Ownership

With an institutional ownership of 85.4%, KGF can face volatile stock price movements if institutions execute block trades on the open market, more so, when there are relatively small amounts of shares available on the market to trade Although KGF has a high institutional ownership, such stock moves, in the short-term, are more commonly linked to a particular type of active institutional investors – hedge funds. In the case of KGF, investors need not worry about such volatility considering active hedge funds don’t have a significant stake. However, we should dig deeper into KGF’s ownership structure and find out how other key ownership classes can affect its investment profile.

Insider Ownership

Insiders form a group of important ownership types as they manage the company’s operations and decide the best use of capital. Insider ownership has been linked to better alignment between management and shareholders. A stake of less than 1% in KGF is relatively small, though at least there is still some alignment of interest with shareholders. A higher level of insider ownership has been found to reflect the choosing of projects with higher return on investments compared to lower returning projects for the sake of expansion. I will also like to check what insiders have been doing recently with their holdings. Insider buying may be a sign of upbeat future expectations, however, selling doesn’t necessarily mean the opposite as insiders may be motivated by their personal financial needs.

LSE:KGF Insider Trading August 30th 18
LSE:KGF Insider Trading August 30th 18

General Public Ownership

The general public holds a substantial 13.7% stake in KGF, making it a highly popular stock among retail investors. This size of ownership gives retail investors collective power in deciding on major policy decisions such as executive compensation, appointment of directors and acquisitions of businesses.

Private Company Ownership

Another important group of owners for potential investors in KGF are private companies that hold a stake of 0.09% in KGF. These are companies that are mainly invested due to their strategic interests or are incentivized by reaping capital gains on investments their shareholdings. However, an ownership of this size may be relatively insignificant, meaning that these shareholders may not have the potential to influence KGF’s business strategy. Thus, investors not need worry too much about the consequences of these holdings.

Next Steps:

KGF’s considerably high level of institutional ownership calls for further analysis into its margin of safety. This will allow investors to reduce the impact of non-fundamental factors, such as volatile block trading impact on their portfolio value. However, if you are building an investment case for KGF, ownership structure alone should not dictate your decision to buy or sell the stock. Rather, you should be examining fundamental factors such as the intrinsic valuation, which is a key driver of Kingfisher’s share price. I urge you to complete your research by taking a look at the following:

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  1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for KGF’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for KGF’s outlook.

  2. Past Track Record: Has KGF been consistently performing well irrespective of the ups and downs in the market? Go into more detail in the past performance analysis and take a look at the free visual representations of KGF’s historicals for more clarity.

  3. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here.

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.

To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.

The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.