After losing 22% in the past year, Landis+Gyr Group AG (VTX:LAND) institutional owners must be relieved by the recent gain

Key Insights

• Institutions' substantial holdings in Landis+Gyr Group implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price
• A total of 17 investors have a majority stake in the company with 50% ownership
• Insider ownership in Landis+Gyr Group is 11%

If you want to know who really controls Landis+Gyr Group AG (VTX:LAND), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. With 43% stake, institutions possess the maximum shares in the company. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Last week's CHF55m market cap gain would probably be appreciated by institutional investors, especially after a year of 22% losses.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Landis+Gyr Group.

View our latest analysis for Landis+Gyr Group

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Landis+Gyr Group?

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.

Landis+Gyr Group 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. 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 Landis+Gyr Group's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Landis+Gyr Group is not owned by hedge funds. The company's largest shareholder is Rudolf Maag, with ownership of 10%. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 7.7% and 5.2% of the stock.

Looking at the shareholder registry, we can see that 50% of the ownership is controlled by the top 17 shareholders, meaning that no single shareholder has a majority interest in the ownership.

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 Landis+Gyr Group

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. 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 a reasonable proportion of Landis+Gyr Group AG. It is very interesting to see that insiders have a meaningful CHF166m stake in this CHF1.5b 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

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 38% stake in Landis+Gyr Group. 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 Equity Ownership

Private equity firms hold a 7.7% stake in Landis+Gyr Group. This suggests they can be influential in key policy decisions. Some might like this, because private equity are sometimes activists who hold management accountable. But other times, private equity is selling out, having taking the company public.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. To that end, you should be aware of the 2 warning signs we've spotted with Landis+Gyr Group .

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.