Yahoo Finance After losing 23% in the past year, Befesa S.A. (ETR:BFSA) institutional owners must be relieved by the recent gain
If you want to know who really controls Befesa S.A. (ETR:BFSA), 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 institutions with 62% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).
After a year of 23% losses, last week’s 9.5% gain would be welcomed by institutional investors as a likely sign that returns might start trending higher.
In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Befesa.
View our latest analysis for Befesa
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Befesa?
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.
Befesa 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 Befesa's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.
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 Befesa. Our data shows that Allianz Asset Management AG is the largest shareholder with 10.0% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 5.4% and 5.1% of the stock.
Looking at the shareholder registry, we can see that 50% of the ownership is controlled by the top 21 shareholders, meaning that no single shareholder has a majority interest in the ownership.
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 plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.
Insider Ownership Of Befesa
The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. 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 data cannot confirm that board members are holding shares personally. It is unusual not to have at least some personal holdings by board members, so our data might be flawed. A good next step would be to check how much the CEO is paid.
General Public Ownership
With a 33% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Befesa. 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.
Private Equity Ownership
With a stake of 5.1%, private equity firms could influence the Befesa board. Some investors might be encouraged by this, since private equity are sometimes able to encourage strategies that help the market see the value in the company. Alternatively, those holders might be exiting the investment after taking it public.
Next Steps:
It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Befesa better, we need to consider many other factors. Be aware that Befesa is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those is a bit unpleasant...
If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.
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.
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