Azelis Group NV (EBR:AZE) institutional owners may be pleased with recent gains after 9.1% loss over the past year

Key Insights

• Significantly high institutional ownership implies Azelis Group's stock price is sensitive to their trading actions
• 52% of the business is held by the top 5 shareholders
• Ownership research along with analyst forecasts data help provide a good understanding of opportunities in a stock

Every investor in Azelis Group NV (EBR:AZE) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are institutions with 37% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

Last week's €239m market cap gain would probably be appreciated by institutional investors, especially after a year of 9.1% losses.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Azelis Group.

Check out our latest analysis for Azelis Group

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Azelis Group?

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 Azelis Group. 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 Azelis Group's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Azelis Group. The company's largest shareholder is EQT Partners AB, with ownership of 36%. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 5.0% and 4.3% of the stock.

On looking further, we found that 52% of the shares are owned by the top 5 shareholders. In other words, these shareholders have a meaningful say in the decisions of the company.

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. 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 Azelis Group

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.

We note our data does not show any board members holding shares, personally. Given we are not picking up on insider ownership, we may have missing data. Therefore, it would be interesting to assess the CEO compensation and tenure, here.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 24% 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 Equity Ownership

With a stake of 36%, private equity firms could influence the Azelis Group board. Some investors might be encouraged by this, since private equity are sometimes able to encourage strategies that help the market see the value in the company. Alternatively, those holders might be exiting the investment after taking it public.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 3.0%, of the Azelis Group stock. 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:

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. To that end, you should be aware of the 2 warning signs we've spotted with Azelis Group .

But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter 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.