Ultrapar Participações S.A.'s (BVMF:UGPA3) largest shareholders are individual investors who were rewarded as market cap surged R$1.7b last week

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by individual investors in Ultrapar Participações indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• The top 6 shareholders own 51% of the company
• Institutions own 31% of Ultrapar Participações

If you want to know who really controls Ultrapar Participações S.A. (BVMF:UGPA3), 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 34% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Clearly, individual investors benefitted the most after the company's market cap rose by R$1.7b last week.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Ultrapar Participações.

See our latest analysis for Ultrapar Participações

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Ultrapar Participações?

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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Ultrapar Participações. 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. 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 Ultrapar Participações' historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Ultrapar Participações is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Ultrapar Participações S.A. with 26% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 7.9% and 5.5%, of the shares outstanding, respectively. In addition, we found that Marcos Lutz, the CEO has 1.5% of the shares allocated to their name.

We did some more digging and found that 6 of the top shareholders account for roughly 51% of the register, implying that along with larger shareholders, there are a few smaller shareholders, thereby balancing out each others interests somewhat.

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

Insider Ownership Of Ultrapar Participações

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. 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 most recent data indicates that insiders own some shares in Ultrapar Participações S.A.. This is a big company, so it is good to see this level of alignment. Insiders own R$460m worth of shares (at current prices). If you would like to explore the question of insider alignment, you can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 34% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Ultrapar Participações. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Private Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 34%, of the shares on issue. 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:

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. Case in point: We've spotted 3 warning signs for Ultrapar Participações you should be aware of, and 1 of them is significant.

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.