While private companies own 34% of Helvetia Holding AG (VTX:HELN), individual investors are its largest shareholders with 44% ownership

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by individual investors in Helvetia Holding indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• A total of 12 investors have a majority stake in the company with 50% ownership
• 22% of Helvetia Holding is held by Institutions

Every investor in Helvetia Holding AG (VTX:HELN) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. We can see that individual investors own the lion's share in the company with 44% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Private companies, on the other hand, account for 34% of the company's stockholders.

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

See our latest analysis for Helvetia Holding

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Helvetia 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.

Helvetia Holding already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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 Helvetia Holding's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Helvetia Holding is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Patria Società cooperativa with 34% of shares outstanding. With 3.6% and 2.7% of the shares outstanding respectively, BlackRock, Inc. and Dimensional Fund Advisors LP are the second and third largest shareholders.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 12 have the combined ownership of 50% in the company, suggesting that no single shareholder has significant control over the company.

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

Insider Ownership Of Helvetia Holding

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. 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.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own less than 1% of Helvetia Holding AG. 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 CHF14m worth of shares. The absolute value might be more important than the proportional share. It is always good to see at least some insider ownership, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 44% stake in Helvetia 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

It seems that Private Companies own 34%, of the Helvetia Holding stock. 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:

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. Case in point: We've spotted 1 warning sign for Helvetia Holding you should be aware of.

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.