State or government among Romande Energie Holding SA's (VTX:REHN) largest stockholders and were hit after last week's 5.6% price drop

Key Insights

• Romande Energie Holding's significant state or government ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• The top 2 shareholders own 51% of the company
• Institutional ownership in Romande Energie Holding is 12%

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Romande Energie Holding SA (VTX:REHN), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. With 46% stake, state or government possess the maximum shares in the company. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

And last week, state or government endured the biggest losses as the stock fell by 5.6%.

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

Check out our latest analysis for Romande Energie Holding

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Romande Energie 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.

Romande Energie Holding already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. This implies the analysts working for those institutions have looked at the stock and they like it. But just like anyone else, they could be wrong. 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 Romande Energie Holding, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Romande Energie Holding. Our data shows that State of Vaud is the largest shareholder with 43% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 7.7% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 4.4% by the third-largest shareholder.

To make our study more interesting, we found that the top 2 shareholders have a majority ownership in the company, meaning that they are powerful enough to influence the decisions of the company.

Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of Romande Energie Holding

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.

I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.

We note our data does not show any board members 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-- including retail investors -- own 34% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 7.7%, of the Romande Energie 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:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Take risks for example - Romande Energie Holding has 2 warning signs (and 1 which makes us a bit uncomfortable) we think you should know about.

If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.

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.