State or government invested in Liechtensteinische Landesbank Aktiengesellschaft (VTX:LLBN) copped the brunt of last week's CHF67m market cap decline

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by state or government in Liechtensteinische Landesbank indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• The largest shareholder of the company is Liechtenstein with a 57% stake
• Past performance of a company along with ownership data serve to give a strong idea about prospects for a business

Every investor in Liechtensteinische Landesbank Aktiengesellschaft (VTX:LLBN) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 57% to be precise, is state or government. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

And last week, state or government endured the biggest losses as the stock fell by 3.6%.

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

View our latest analysis for Liechtensteinische Landesbank

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Liechtensteinische Landesbank?

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 Liechtensteinische Landesbank. 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 Liechtensteinische Landesbank's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Liechtensteinische Landesbank is not owned by hedge funds. The company's largest shareholder is Liechtenstein, with ownership of 57%. This essentially means that they have extensive influence, if not outright control, over the future of the corporation. With 5.9% and 1.4% of the shares outstanding respectively, Haselsteiner Familien-Privatstiftung and Credit Suisse Asset Management (Switzerland) 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. There is a little analyst coverage of the stock, but not much. So there is room for it to gain more coverage.

Insider Ownership Of Liechtensteinische Landesbank

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.

Our information suggests that Liechtensteinische Landesbank Aktiengesellschaft insiders own under 1% of the company. But they may have an indirect interest through a corporate structure that we haven't picked up on. It's a big company, so even a small proportional interest can create alignment between the board and shareholders. In this case insiders own CHF5.9m worth of shares. Arguably, recent buying and selling is just as important to consider. You can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 32% stake in Liechtensteinische Landesbank. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.

Private Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 5.9%, of the shares on issue. It might be worth looking deeper into this. If related parties, such as insiders, have an interest in one of these private companies, that should be disclosed in the annual report. Private companies may also have a strategic interest in the company.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Liechtensteinische Landesbank better, we need to consider many other factors. Be aware that Liechtensteinische Landesbank is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , 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.