State or government among Romande Energie Holding SA's (VTX:REHN) largest stockholders and were hit after last week's 3.7% price drop

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by state or government in Romande Energie Holding indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• 51% of the business is held by the top 2 shareholders
• Institutions own 11% of Romande Energie Holding

Every investor in Romande Energie Holding SA (VTX:REHN) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. 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).

As market cap fell to CHF1.3b last week, state or government would have faced the highest losses than any other shareholder groups of the company.

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

See our latest analysis for Romande Energie Holding

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Romande Energie 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.

We can see that Romande Energie 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. 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 Romande Energie 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 Romande Energie Holding. The company's largest shareholder is State of Vaud, with ownership of 43%. With 7.7% and 4.4% of the shares outstanding respectively, Groupe E SA and Credit Suisse Investment Foundation are the second and third largest shareholders.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 2 shareholders collectively control more than half of the company's shares, implying that they have considerable power to influence the company's decisions.

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 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 Romande Energie Holding

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

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. Not all jurisdictions have the same rules around disclosing insider ownership, and it is possible we have missed something, here. So you can click here learn more about the CEO.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 35% stake in Romande Energie 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

We can see that Private Companies own 7.7%, of the shares on issue. 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:

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. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for Romande Energie Holding (of which 1 doesn't sit too well with us!) 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.

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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.