Institutional investors must be pleased after a 6.0% gain last week that adds to Burckhardt Compression Holding AG's (VTX:BCHN) one-year returns

Key Insights

• Institutions' substantial holdings in Burckhardt Compression Holding implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price
• The top 9 shareholders own 52% of the company
• Ownership research along with analyst forecasts data help provide a good understanding of opportunities in a stock

Our free stock report includes 1 warning sign investors should be aware of before investing in Burckhardt Compression Holding. Read for free now.

Every investor in Burckhardt Compression Holding AG (VTX:BCHN) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. With 60% stake, institutions possess the maximum shares in the company. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

And things are looking up for institutional investors after the company gained CHF119m in market cap last week. One-year return to shareholders is currently 1.2% and last week’s gain was the icing on the cake.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Burckhardt Compression Holding.

View our latest analysis for Burckhardt Compression Holding

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Burckhardt Compression Holding?

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.

Burckhardt Compression Holding 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. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Burckhardt Compression Holding's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences. Burckhardt Compression Holding is not owned by hedge funds. MBO Aktionarsgruppe is currently the largest shareholder, with 10.0% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 9.9% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 9.6% by the third-largest shareholder.

We did some more digging and found that 9 of the top shareholders account for roughly 52% 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. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of Burckhardt Compression Holding

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 data suggests that insiders own under 1% of Burckhardt Compression Holding AG in their own names. We do note, however, it is possible insiders have an indirect interest through a private company or other corporate structure. Keep in mind that it's a big company, and the insiders own CHF7.8m worth of shares. The absolute value might be more important than the proportional share. 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-- including retail investors -- own 29% 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.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 10.0%, of the Burckhardt Compression Holding stock. 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. To that end, you should be aware of the 1 warning sign we've spotted with Burckhardt Compression Holding .

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.