If you want to know who really controls Liberbank, S.A. (BME:LBK), then you’ll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. Generally speaking, as a company grows, institutions will increase their ownership. Conversely, insiders often decrease their ownership over time. Companies that have been privatized tend to have low insider ownership.
Liberbank is a smaller company with a market capitalization of €397m, so it may still be flying under the radar of many institutional investors. Taking a look at our data on the ownership groups (below), it’s seems that institutions own shares in the company. Let’s delve deeper into each type of owner, to discover more about Liberbank.
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What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Liberbank?
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.
We can see that Liberbank does have institutional investors; and they hold 51% of the stock. 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 Liberbank, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.
Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. Hedge funds don’t have many shares in Liberbank. Cajastur Gestión SGIIC S.A. is currently the company’s largest shareholder with 16% of shares outstanding. Next, we have Aivilo Spain, S.L.U. and Corporacion Masaveu S.A. as the second and third largest shareholders, holding 7.1% and 5.0%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.
We also observed that the top 9 shareholders account for 51% of the register, with a few smaller shareholders to balance the interests of the larger ones to a certain extent.
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 Liberbank
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. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.
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 information suggests that Liberbank, S.A. insiders own under 1% of the company. But they may have an indirect interest through a corporate structure that we haven’t picked up on. It has a market capitalization of just €397m, and the board has only €2.8m worth of shares in their own names. I 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, with a 28% stake in the company, will not easily be ignored. While this group can’t necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.
Private Company Ownership
It seems that Private Companies own 20%, of the LBK stock. It’s hard to draw any conclusions from this fact alone, so its worth looking into who owns those private companies. Sometimes insiders or other related parties have an interest in shares in a public company through a separate private company.
Next Steps:
It’s always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Liberbank better, we need to consider many other factors. Take risks, for example – Liberbank has 4 warning signs (and 1 which is a bit concerning) we think you should know about.
But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter 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.
If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.
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