ALSO Holding AG's (VTX:ALSN) top owners are private companies with 58% stake, while 23% is held by individual investors

Key Insights

• Significant control over ALSO Holding by private companies implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• Droege Group AG owns 54% of the company
• 19% of ALSO Holding is held by Institutions

If you want to know who really controls ALSO Holding AG (VTX:ALSN), 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 58% to be precise, is private companies. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Meanwhile, individual investors make up 23% of the company’s shareholders.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of ALSO Holding.

See our latest analysis for ALSO Holding

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About ALSO Holding?

Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.

ALSO 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. 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 ALSO Holding's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in ALSO Holding. Droege Group AG is currently the company's largest shareholder with 54% of shares outstanding. This essentially means that they have extensive influence, if not outright control, over the future of the corporation. Jh Topco Limited is the second largest shareholder owning 3.9% of common stock, and J. Safra Sarasin Investmentfonds Ltd holds about 3.2% of the company stock.

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 ALSO Holding

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

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 data cannot confirm that board members are holding shares personally. Given we are not picking up on insider ownership, we may have missing data. Therefore, it would be interesting to assess the CEO compensation and tenure, here.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 23% stake in ALSO 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

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 58%, of the company's shares. 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 ALSO Holding better, we need to consider many other factors. Be aware that ALSO Holding is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis , you should know about...

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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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.