Treasury Wine Estates Limited's (ASX:TWE) market cap touched AU$4.7b last week, benefiting both retail investors who own 49% as well as institutions

Key Insights

• Significant control over Treasury Wine Estates by retail investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• 49% of the business is held by the top 25 shareholders
• Insiders have bought recently

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A look at the shareholders of Treasury Wine Estates Limited (ASX:TWE) 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. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Retail investors gained the most after market cap touched AU$4.7b last week, while institutions who own 47% also benefitted.

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

View our latest analysis for Treasury Wine Estates

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Treasury Wine Estates?

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 Treasury Wine Estates. 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. 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 Treasury Wine Estates, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Treasury Wine Estates. State Street Global Advisors, Inc. is currently the largest shareholder, with 9.6% of shares outstanding. With 6.1% and 5.5% of the shares outstanding respectively, Paradice Investment Management Pty Ltd. and BlackRock, Inc. are the second and third largest shareholders.

A deeper look at our ownership data shows that the top 25 shareholders collectively hold less than half of the register, suggesting a large group of small holders where no single shareholder has a majority.

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. There are a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future.

Insider Ownership Of Treasury Wine Estates

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

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 most recent data indicates that insiders own less than 1% of Treasury Wine Estates Limited. But they may have an indirect interest through a corporate structure that we haven't picked up on. Keep in mind that it's a big company, and the insiders own AU$7.9m worth of shares. The absolute value might be more important than the proportional share. It is always good to see at least some insider ownership, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 49% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Treasury Wine Estates. 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

It seems that Private Companies own 3.6%, of the Treasury Wine Estates 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:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Treasury Wine Estates better, we need to consider many other factors. Be aware that Treasury Wine Estates is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis , you should know about...

If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its 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.

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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.