While institutions own 29% of Swissquote Group Holding Ltd (VTX:SQN), individual investors are its largest shareholders with 48% ownership

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by individual investors in Swissquote Group Holding indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• The top 25 shareholders own 45% of the company
• 23% of Swissquote Group Holding is held by insiders

Every investor in Swissquote Group Holding Ltd (VTX:SQN) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. With 48% stake, individual investors possess the maximum shares in the company. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Institutions, on the other hand, account for 29% of the company's stockholders. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Swissquote Group Holding, beginning with the chart below.

See our latest analysis for Swissquote Group Holding

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Swissquote Group 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.

Swissquote Group 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 Swissquote Group Holding's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Swissquote Group Holding. The company's CEO Marc Burki is the largest shareholder with 12% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 11% and 5.1%, of the shares outstanding, respectively. Interestingly, the second-largest shareholder, Paolo Buzzi is also Senior Key Executive, again, pointing towards strong insider ownership amongst the company's top shareholders.

On studying our ownership data, we found that 25 of the top shareholders collectively own less than 50% of the share register, implying that no single individual has a majority interest.

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 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 Swissquote Group Holding

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

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.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of Swissquote Group Holding Ltd. It has a market capitalization of just CHF3.3b, and insiders have CHF756m worth of shares in their own names. That's quite significant. It is good to see this level of investment. You can check here to see if those insiders have been buying recently.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 48% stake in Swissquote Group Holding. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

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 access this interactive graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow, for free.

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.