A look at the shareholders of Lonza Group Ltd (VTX:LONN) can tell us which group is most powerful. Generally speaking, as a company grows, institutions will increase their ownership. Conversely, insiders often decrease their ownership over time. We also tend to see lower insider ownership in companies that were previously publicly owned.
Lonza Group has a market capitalization of CHF40b, so it’s too big to fly under the radar. We’d expect to see both institutions and retail investors owning a portion of the company. Taking a look at our data on the ownership groups (below), it seems that institutions are noticeable on the share registry. Let’s take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Lonza Group.
See our latest analysis for Lonza Group
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Lonza Group?
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.
Lonza Group already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can’t rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. 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 Lonza Group’s earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.
We note that hedge funds don’t have a meaningful investment in Lonza Group. Our data shows that BlackRock, Inc. is the largest shareholder with 9.7% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 3.1% and 3.0%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.
On studying our ownership data, we found that 25 of the top shareholders collectively own less than 50% of the share register, implying that no single individual has a majority interest.
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. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.
Insider Ownership Of Lonza Group
While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.
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 Lonza Group Ltd. Being so large, we would not expect insiders to own a large proportion of the stock. Collectively, they own CHF94m of stock. In this sort of situation, it can be more interesting to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.
General Public Ownership
The general public, who are mostly retail investors, collectively hold 56% of Lonza Group shares. This level of ownership gives retail investors the power to sway key policy decisions such as board composition, executive compensation, and the dividend payout ratio.
Next Steps:
While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Case in point: We’ve spotted 1 warning sign for Lonza Group you should be aware of.
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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