Recent uptick might appease Gurit Holding AG (VTX:GURN) institutional owners after losing 8.8% over the past year

Key Insights

• Institutions' substantial holdings in Gurit Holding implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price
• 52% of the business is held by the top 5 shareholders
• Insiders own 26% of Gurit Holding

If you want to know who really controls Gurit Holding AG (VTX:GURN), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 36% to be precise, is institutions. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Institutional investors would appreciate the 10% increase in share price last week, given their one-year losses have totalled a disappointing 8.8%.

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

Check out our latest analysis for Gurit Holding

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Gurit 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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Gurit Holding. 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 Gurit Holding's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Gurit Holding. The company's largest shareholder is Martin Bisang, with ownership of 25%. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 10% and 6.5%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.

To make our study more interesting, we found that the top 5 shareholders control more than half of the company which implies that this group has considerable sway over the company's decision-making.

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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Gurit Holding

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

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of Gurit Holding AG. It has a market capitalization of just CHF380m, and insiders have CHF97m worth of shares in their own names. It is great to see insiders so invested in the business. It might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying recently.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 34% stake in Gurit Holding. This size of ownership, while considerable, may not be enough to change company policy if the decision is not in sync with other large shareholders.

Private Company Ownership

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 5.1%, of the company's shares. 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:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Gurit Holding better, we need to consider many other factors. Case in point: We've spotted 2 warning signs for Gurit Holding you should be aware of.

If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its 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.