Maisons du Monde S.A.'s (EPA:MDM) market cap surged €25m last week, private companies who have a lot riding on the company were rewarded

Key Insights

• Maisons du Monde's significant private companies ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• A total of 2 investors have a majority stake in the company with 54% ownership
• 20% of Maisons du Monde is held by Institutions

Every investor in Maisons du Monde S.A. (EPA:MDM) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 28% to be precise, is private companies. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Clearly, private companies benefitted the most after the company's market cap rose by €25m last week.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Maisons du Monde.

View our latest analysis for Maisons du Monde

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Maisons du Monde?

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.

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

It would appear that 26% of Maisons du Monde shares are controlled by hedge funds. That catches my attention because hedge funds sometimes try to influence management, or bring about changes that will create near term value for shareholders. Majorelle Investments S.À R.L. is currently the company's largest shareholder with 28% of shares outstanding. With 26% and 9.7% of the shares outstanding respectively, Teleios Capital Partners LLC and FMR LLC are the second and third largest shareholders.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 2 shareholders collectively control more than half of the company's shares, implying that they have considerable power to influence the company's decisions.

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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Maisons du Monde

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. 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.

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

Our information suggests that Maisons du Monde S.A. insiders own under 1% of the company. However, it's possible that insiders might have an indirect interest through a more complex structure. It seems the board members have no more than €516k worth of shares in the €180m company. We generally like to see a board more invested. However it might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 25% 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 Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 28%, of the Maisons du Monde stock. Private companies may be related parties. Sometimes insiders have an interest in a public company through a holding in a private company, rather than in their own capacity as an individual. While it's hard to draw any broad stroke conclusions, it is worth noting as an area for further research.

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. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Maisons du Monde you should know about.

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.