What Kind Of Shareholders Hold The Majority In Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli AG's (VTX:LISN) Shares?

A look at the shareholders of Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli AG (VTX:LISN) can tell us which group is most powerful. Institutions often own shares in more established companies, while it's not unusual to see insiders own a fair bit of smaller companies. Companies that used to be publicly owned tend to have lower insider ownership.

Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli has a market capitalization of CHF20b, so it's too big to fly under the radar. We'd expect to see both institutions and retail investors owning a portion of the company. Taking a look at our data on the ownership groups (below), it seems that institutions are noticeable on the share registry. Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli.

Check out our latest analysis for Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli?

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.

We can see that Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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. 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 Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli. Our data shows that Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli AG, ESOP is the largest shareholder with 12% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 4.0% and 2.6%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.

A deeper look at our ownership data shows that the top 25 shareholders collectively hold less than half of the register, suggesting a large group of small holders where no single shareholder has a majority.

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

Insider Ownership Of Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli

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. 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.

Shareholders would probably be interested to learn that insiders own shares in Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli AG. Insiders own CHF578m worth of shares (at current prices). I sometimes take an interest in whether they have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are mostly retail investors, collectively hold 56% of Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli shares. With this size of ownership, retail investors can collectively play a role in decisions that affect shareholder returns, such as dividend policies and the appointment of directors. They can also exercise the power to decline an acquisition or merger that may not improve profitability.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important.

Many find it useful to take an in depth look at how a company has performed in the past. You can access this detailed graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

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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