While institutions invested in Cogna Educação S.A. (BVMF:COGN3) benefited from last week's 9.8% gain, individual investors stood to gain the most

Key Insights

• Cogna Educação's significant individual investors ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• A total of 19 investors have a majority stake in the company with 50% ownership
• Institutions own 36% of Cogna Educação

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A look at the shareholders of Cogna Educação S.A. (BVMF:COGN3) can tell us which group is most powerful. We can see that individual investors own the lion's share in the company with 46% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

While individual investors were the group that reaped the most benefits after last week’s 9.8% price gain, institutions also received a 36% cut.

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

Check out our latest analysis for Cogna Educação

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Cogna Educação?

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.

We can see that Cogna Educação does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see Cogna Educação's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Our data indicates that hedge funds own 18% of Cogna Educação. That worth noting, since hedge funds are often quite active investors, who may try to influence management. Many want to see value creation (and a higher share price) in the short term or medium term. Our data shows that Alaska Investimentos LTDA. is the largest shareholder with 18% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 8.5% and 5.3% of the stock.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 19 have the combined ownership of 50% in the company, suggesting that no single shareholder has significant control over the company.

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 Cogna Educação

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. The company management answer to the board and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board themselves.

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. 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 46% 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.

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 1 warning sign we've spotted with Cogna Educação .

If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its 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.