Public companies are DEME Group NV's (EBR:DEME) biggest owners and were rewarded after market cap rose by €375m last week

Key Insights

• Significant control over DEME Group by public companies implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• Ackermans & Van Haaren NV owns 62% of the company
• Using data from analyst forecasts alongside ownership research, one can better assess the future performance of a company

A look at the shareholders of DEME Group NV (EBR:DEME) can tell us which group is most powerful. With 74% stake, public companies possess the maximum shares in the company. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Clearly, public companies benefitted the most after the company's market cap rose by €375m last week.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of DEME Group, beginning with the chart below.

Check out our latest analysis for DEME Group

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About DEME 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 DEME Group. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. 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 DEME Group, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in DEME Group. Our data shows that Ackermans & Van Haaren NV is the largest shareholder with 62% of shares outstanding. This implies that they have majority interest control of the future of the company. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 12% and 1.0%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.

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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of DEME Group

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

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

With a 18% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over DEME Group. 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.

Public Company Ownership

We can see that public companies hold 74% of the DEME Group shares on issue. This may be a strategic interest and the two companies may have related business interests. It could be that they have de-merged. This holding is probably worth investigating further.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand DEME 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.

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.