While individual investors own 29% of Banco de Chile (SNSE:CHILE), private companies are its largest shareholders with 53% ownership

If you want to know who really controls Banco de Chile (SNSE:CHILE), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are private companies with 53% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Meanwhile, individual investors make up 29% of the company’s shareholders.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Banco de Chile.

See our latest analysis for Banco de Chile

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Banco de Chile?

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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Banco de Chile. 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 Banco de Chile, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Banco de Chile. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is LQ Inversiones Financieras S.A. with 51% of shares outstanding. With such a huge stake in the ownership, we infer that they have significant control of the future of the company. With 6.0% and 1.8% of the shares outstanding respectively, Jacob Ergas Ergas and FMR LLC are the second and third largest shareholders.

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 Banco de Chile

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. The company management answer to the board and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board themselves.

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 can see that insiders own shares in Banco de Chile. The insiders have a meaningful stake worth CL$508b. we sometimes take an interest in whether they have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 29% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. 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

It seems that Private Companies own 53%, of the Banco de Chile stock. Private companies may be related parties. Sometimes insiders have an interest in a public company through a holding in a private company, rather than in their own capacity as an individual. While it's hard to draw any broad stroke conclusions, it is worth noting as an area for further research.

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. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 3 warning signs with Banco de Chile (at least 2 which are concerning) , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.

If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its 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.