While individual investors own 18% of Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO), public companies are its largest shareholders with 70% ownership

Key Insights

• Significant control over Great-West Lifeco 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 Power Corporation of Canada with a 70% stake
• Recent sales by insiders

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A look at the shareholders of Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) can tell us which group is most powerful. We can see that public companies own the lion's share in the company with 70% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

And individual investors on the other hand have a 18% ownership in the company.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Great-West Lifeco, beginning with the chart below.

View our latest analysis for Great-West Lifeco

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Great-West Lifeco?

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 Great-West Lifeco. 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. 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 Great-West Lifeco, (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 Great-West Lifeco. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Power Corporation of Canada with 70% of shares outstanding. With such a huge stake in the ownership, we infer that they have significant control of the future of the company. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 4.3% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 1.2% by the third-largest shareholder.

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. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of Great-West Lifeco

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.

I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own less than 1% of Great-West Lifeco Inc.. Being so large, we would not expect insiders to own a large proportion of the stock. Collectively, they own CA$46m of stock. It is good to see board members owning shares, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 18% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. 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 70% of Great-West Lifeco 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.

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.

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.