Eagers Automotive Limited's (ASX:APE) top owners are retail investors with 49% stake, while 31% is held by private companies

Key Insights

• Eagers Automotive's significant retail investors ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• 49% of the business is held by the top 25 shareholders
• Institutions own 15% of Eagers Automotive

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A look at the shareholders of Eagers Automotive Limited (ASX:APE) can tell us which group is most powerful. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 49% to be precise, is retail investors. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Private companies, on the other hand, account for 31% of the company's stockholders.

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

See our latest analysis for Eagers Automotive

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Eagers Automotive?

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 Eagers Automotive. 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. 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 Eagers Automotive's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Eagers Automotive is not owned by hedge funds. The company's largest shareholder is WFM Motors Pty Ltd, with ownership of 27%. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 4.5% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 2.5% by the third-largest shareholder. Furthermore, CEO Keith Thornton is the owner of 0.5% of the company's shares.

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 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 Eagers Automotive

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.

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.

Shareholders would probably be interested to learn that insiders own shares in Eagers Automotive Limited. It is a pretty big company, so it is generally a positive to see some potentially meaningful alignment. In this case, they own around AU$178m worth of shares (at current prices). If you would like to explore the question of insider alignment, you can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 49% 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

We can see that Private Companies own 31%, of the shares on issue. 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:

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. Take risks for example - Eagers Automotive has 3 warning signs (and 1 which is a bit concerning) we think 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.