Individual investors are Onward Medical N.V.'s (EBR:ONWD) biggest owners and were rewarded after market cap rose by €21m last week

Key Insights

• Significant control over Onward Medical by individual investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• A total of 8 investors have a majority stake in the company with 50% ownership
• Institutional ownership in Onward Medical is 21%

Every investor in Onward Medical N.V. (EBR:ONWD) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 42% to be precise, is individual investors. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

As a result, individual investors were the biggest beneficiaries of last week’s 12% gain.

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

View our latest analysis for Onward Medical

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Onward Medical?

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 Onward Medical. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. 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 Onward Medical, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Onward Medical. Our data shows that INKEF Netherlands Manager B.V. is the largest shareholder with 12% of shares outstanding. With 11% and 9.2% of the shares outstanding respectively, LSP Advisory B.V., and Gimv NV are the second and third largest shareholders. Furthermore, CEO David Marver is the owner of 2.9% of the company's shares.

On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 8 shareholders, suggesting that the interests of the larger shareholders are balanced out to an extent by the smaller ones.

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. 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 Onward Medical

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.

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 can report that insiders do own shares in Onward Medical N.V.. In their own names, insiders own €17m worth of stock in the €198m company. Some would say this shows alignment of interests between shareholders and the board. But it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 42% 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 Equity Ownership

With a stake of 21%, private equity firms could influence the Onward Medical board. Sometimes we see private equity stick around for the long term, but generally speaking they have a shorter investment horizon and -- as the name suggests -- don't invest in public companies much. After some time they may look to sell and redeploy capital elsewhere.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 7.7%, of the Onward Medical stock. 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:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 6 warning signs for Onward Medical (of which 3 are a bit concerning!) you should know about.

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.