Yahoo Finance Swiss Prime Site AG's (VTX:SPSN) market cap touched CHF6.7b last week, benefiting both individual investors who own 52% as well as institutions
Key Insights
Significant control over Swiss Prime Site by individual investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
42% of the business is held by the top 25 shareholders
48% of Swiss Prime Site is held by Institutions
If you want to know who really controls Swiss Prime Site AG (VTX:SPSN), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are individual investors with 52% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.
While individual investors were the group that benefitted the most from last week’s CHF215m market cap gain, institutions too had a 48% share in those profits.
Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Swiss Prime Site.
See our latest analysis for Swiss Prime Site
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Swiss Prime Site?
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 Swiss Prime Site. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. 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 Swiss Prime Site, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.
Swiss Prime Site is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is BlackRock, Inc. with 8.7% of shares outstanding. With 8.0% and 5.0% of the shares outstanding respectively, Credit Suisse Asset Management (Switzerland) Ltd. and UBS Asset Management AG are the second and third largest shareholders.
A deeper look at our ownership data shows that the top 25 shareholders collectively hold less than half of the register, suggesting a large group of small holders where no single shareholder has a majority.
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 Swiss Prime Site
While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. 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.
Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.
Our most recent data indicates that insiders own less than 1% of Swiss Prime Site AG. Keep in mind that it's a big company, and the insiders own CHF9.7m worth of shares. The absolute value might be more important than the proportional share. It is always good to see at least some insider ownership, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.
General Public Ownership
The general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, collectively holds 52% of Swiss Prime Site shares. This size of ownership gives investors from the general public some collective power. They can and probably do influence decisions on executive compensation, dividend policies and proposed business acquisitions.
Next Steps:
I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Take risks for example - Swiss Prime Site has 4 warning signs (and 1 which shouldn't be ignored) we think you should know about.
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.
