Ambev S.A. (BVMF:ABEV3) most popular amongst public companies who own 62% of the shares, institutions hold 26%

Key Insights

• Significant control over Ambev by public companies implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• The largest shareholder of the company is Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV with a 63% stake
• 26% of Ambev is held by Institutions

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If you want to know who really controls Ambev S.A. (BVMF:ABEV3), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are public companies with 62% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Meanwhile, institutions make up 26% of the company’s shareholders. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders.

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

View our latest analysis for Ambev

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Ambev?

Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.

Ambev already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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 Ambev's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Ambev. The company's largest shareholder is Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, with ownership of 63%. With such a huge stake in the ownership, we infer that they have significant control of the future of the company. With 10% and 2.2% of the shares outstanding respectively, Fundacao Antonio e Helena Zerrenner and First Eagle Investment Management, LLC are the second and third largest shareholders.

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

Insider Ownership Of Ambev

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.

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 11% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Ambev. 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.

Public Company Ownership

Public companies currently own 62% of Ambev stock. It's hard to say for sure but this suggests they have entwined business interests. This might be a strategic stake, so it's worth watching this space for changes in ownership.

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. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Ambev you should know about.

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

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.