Is Burckhardt Compression Holding AG's (VTX:BCHN) Shareholder Ownership Skewed Towards Insiders?

If you want to know who really controls Burckhardt Compression Holding AG (VTX:BCHN), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. Large companies usually have institutions as shareholders, and we usually see insiders owning shares in smaller companies. Warren Buffett said that he likes "a business with enduring competitive advantages that is run by able and owner-oriented people." So it's nice to see some insider ownership, because it may suggest that management is owner-oriented.

Burckhardt Compression Holding isn't enormous, but it's not particularly small either. It has a market capitalization of CHF1.1b, which means it would generally expect to see some institutions on the share registry. Our analysis of the ownership of the company, below, shows that institutions own shares in the company. We can zoom in on the different ownership groups, to learn more about Burckhardt Compression Holding.

Check out our latest analysis for Burckhardt Compression Holding

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

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.

Burckhardt Compression Holding already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. 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. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is MBO Aktionarsgruppe with 12% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 10% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 6.0% by the third-largest shareholder. In addition, we found that Marcel Pawlicek, the CEO has 1.2% of the shares allocated to their name.

We did some more digging and found that 10 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.

Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. There are a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future.

Insider Ownership Of Burckhardt Compression Holding

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

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 can see that insiders own shares in Burckhardt Compression Holding AG. This is a big company, so it is good to see this level of alignment. Insiders own CHF84m 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 24% ownership, the general public have some degree of sway over Burckhardt Compression Holding. 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 12%, 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 Burckhardt Compression Holding better, we need to consider many other factors. To that end, you should be aware of the 2 warning signs we've spotted with Burckhardt Compression Holding .

If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.

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. 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.
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