Reece Limited's (ASX:REH) last week's 4.1% decline must have disappointed private companies who have a significant stake

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by private companies in Reece indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• A total of 5 investors have a majority stake in the company with 55% ownership
• Insiders have been selling lately

If you want to know who really controls Reece Limited (ASX:REH), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. With 56% stake, private companies possess the maximum shares in the company. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

And last week, private companies endured the biggest losses as the stock fell by 4.1%.

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

View our latest analysis for Reece

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Reece?

Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.

We can see that Reece does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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 Reece's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Reece. L.T. Wilson Pty Ltd. is currently the company's largest shareholder with 24% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 9.3% and 7.5% of the stock.

To make our study more interesting, we found that the top 5 shareholders control more than half of the company which implies that this group has considerable sway over the company's decision-making.

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 Reece

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.

I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of Reece Limited. It has a market capitalization of just AU$15b, and insiders have AU$1.7b worth of shares in their own names. That's quite significant. It is good to see this level of investment. You can check here to see if those insiders have been buying recently.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 17% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. This size of ownership, while considerable, may not be enough to change company policy if the decision is not in sync with other large shareholders.

Private Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 56%, of the shares on issue. It might be worth looking deeper into this. If related parties, such as insiders, have an interest in one of these private companies, that should be disclosed in the annual report. Private companies may also have a strategic interest in the company.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Reece better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 1 warning sign for Reece that you should be aware of before investing here.

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.