Temple & Webster Group Ltd's (ASX:TPW) one-year returns climbed after last week's 10% gain, institutional investors must be happy

Key Insights

• Institutions' substantial holdings in Temple & Webster Group implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price
• The top 7 shareholders own 52% of the company
• Insiders own 13% of Temple & Webster Group

If you want to know who really controls Temple & Webster Group Ltd (ASX:TPW), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are institutions with 54% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

And things are looking up for institutional investors after the company gained AU$67m in market cap last week. The gains from last week would have further boosted the one-year return to shareholders which currently stand at 4.9%.

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

Check out our latest analysis for Temple & Webster Group

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Temple & Webster 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.

Temple & Webster Group already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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 Temple & Webster Group, (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. Our data indicates that hedge funds own 12% of Temple & Webster Group. That catches my attention because hedge funds sometimes try to influence management, or bring about changes that will create near term value for shareholders. Kinderhook Partners, LLC is currently the largest shareholder, with 12% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 12% and 8.0%, of the shares outstanding, respectively. In addition, we found that Mark Coulter, the CEO has 0.6% of the shares allocated to their name.

On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 7 shareholders, suggesting that the interests of the larger shareholders are balanced out to an extent by the smaller ones.

While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Temple & Webster Group

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. 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.

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.

Our information suggests that insiders maintain a significant holding in Temple & Webster Group Ltd. Insiders have a AU$96m stake in this AU$737m business. We would say this shows alignment with shareholders, but it is worth noting that the company is still quite small; some insiders may have founded the business. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 15% stake in the company, and hence can't 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

We can see that Private Companies own 6.6%, 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 Temple & Webster Group better, we need to consider many other factors.

I like to dive deeper into how a company has performed in the past. You can find historic revenue and earnings in this detailed graph.

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.