INFICON Holding AG's (VTX:IFCN) market cap decline of CHF200m may not have as much of an impact on institutional owners after a year of 6.2% returns

Key Insights

• Given the large stake in the stock by institutions, INFICON Holding's stock price might be vulnerable to their trading decisions
• 51% of the business is held by the top 10 shareholders
• Insider ownership in INFICON Holding is 10%

If you want to know who really controls INFICON Holding AG (VTX:IFCN), 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 54% to be precise, is institutions. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

No shareholder likes losing money on their investments, especially institutional investors who saw their holdings drop 6.7% in value last week. However, the 6.2% one-year return to shareholders might have softened the blow. We would assume however, that they would be on the lookout for weakness in the future.

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

See our latest analysis for INFICON Holding

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About INFICON Holding?

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 INFICON Holding 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. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of INFICON Holding, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in INFICON Holding. The company's largest shareholder is Corisol Holding AG, with ownership of 20%. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 9.3% and 7.0%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.

We did some more digging and found that 10 of the top shareholders account for roughly 51% of the register, implying that along with larger shareholders, there are a few smaller shareholders, thereby balancing out each others interests somewhat.

While it makes sense to study institutional ownership data for a company, it also makes sense to study analyst sentiments to know which way the wind is blowing. 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 INFICON 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.

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 information suggests that insiders maintain a significant holding in INFICON Holding AG. It is very interesting to see that insiders have a meaningful CHF288m stake in this CHF2.8b business. 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

With a 36% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over INFICON 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.

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.

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.

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

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.