Lenzing Aktiengesellschaft's (VIE:LNZ) largest shareholders are retail investors who were rewarded as market cap surged €46m last week

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by retail investors in Lenzing indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• The top 22 shareholders own 50% of the company
• Institutional ownership in Lenzing is 15%

A look at the shareholders of Lenzing Aktiengesellschaft (VIE:LNZ) can tell us which group is most powerful. We can see that retail investors own the lion's share in the company with 49% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

As a result, retail investors were the biggest beneficiaries of last week’s 4.0% gain.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Lenzing, beginning with the chart below.

See our latest analysis for Lenzing

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Lenzing?

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 Lenzing. 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. 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 Lenzing's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Lenzing. The company's largest shareholder is B & C Industrieholding GmbH, with ownership of 36%. With 4.8% and 1.8% of the shares outstanding respectively, Goldman Sachs Group, Investment Banking and Securities Investments and The Vanguard Group, Inc. are the second and third largest shareholders.

Looking at the shareholder registry, we can see that 50% of the ownership is controlled by the top 22 shareholders, meaning that no single shareholder has a majority interest in the ownership.

While it makes sense to study institutional ownership data for a company, it also makes sense to study analyst sentiments to know which way the wind is blowing. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Lenzing

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.

We note our data does not show any board members 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

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 49% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. 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 36%, private equity firms could influence the Lenzing board. Sometimes we see private equity stick around for the long term, but generally speaking they have a shorter investment horizon and -- as the name suggests -- don't invest in public companies much. After some time they may look to sell and redeploy capital elsewhere.

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. Case in point: We've spotted 3 warning signs for Lenzing you should be aware of, and 2 of them shouldn't be ignored.

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

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.