Ackermans & Van Haaren NV's (EBR:ACKB) top owners are individual investors with 53% stake, while 34% is held by private companies

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by individual investors in Ackermans & Van Haaren indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• A total of 25 investors have a majority stake in the company with 45% ownership
• Institutions own 13% of Ackermans & Van Haaren

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If you want to know who really controls Ackermans & Van Haaren NV (EBR:ACKB), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. We can see that individual investors own the lion's share in the company with 53% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Meanwhile, private companies make up 34% of the company’s shareholders.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Ackermans & Van Haaren, beginning with the chart below.

See our latest analysis for Ackermans & Van Haaren

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Ackermans & Van Haaren?

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.

Ackermans & Van Haaren 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. 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 Ackermans & Van Haaren's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Ackermans & Van Haaren. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Belfimas Nv with 34% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 2.7% and 2.5% of the stock.

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.

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 Ackermans & Van Haaren

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. 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.

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 data cannot confirm that board members are holding shares personally. It is unusual not to have at least some personal holdings by board members, so our data might be flawed. A good next step would be to check how much the CEO is paid.

General Public Ownership

The general public -- including retail investors -- own 53% of Ackermans & Van Haaren. With this amount of ownership, retail investors can collectively play a role in decisions that affect shareholder returns, such as dividend policies and the appointment of directors. They can also exercise the power to vote on acquisitions or mergers that may not improve profitability.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 34%, of the Ackermans & Van Haaren 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 Ackermans & Van Haaren better, we need to consider many other factors.

Many find it useful to take an in depth look at how a company has performed in the past. You can access this detailed graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.

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.