Sociedad Punta del Cobre S.A.'s (SNSE:PUCOBRE) market cap touched CL$857b last week, benefiting both private companies who own 53% as well as institutions

Key Insights

• Significant control over Sociedad Punta del Cobre by private companies implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• A total of 2 investors have a majority stake in the company with 53% ownership
• Institutions own 30% of Sociedad Punta del Cobre

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If you want to know who really controls Sociedad Punta del Cobre S.A. (SNSE:PUCOBRE), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. With 53% stake, private companies 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.

While private companies were the group that benefitted the most from last week’s CL$64b market cap gain, institutions too had a 30% share in those profits.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Sociedad Punta del Cobre, beginning with the chart below.

View our latest analysis for Sociedad Punta del Cobre

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Sociedad Punta del Cobre?

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 Sociedad Punta del Cobre. 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. 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 Sociedad Punta del Cobre's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

It looks like hedge funds own 7.4% of Sociedad Punta del Cobre shares. That catches my attention because hedge funds sometimes try to influence management, or bring about changes that will create near term value for shareholders. The company's largest shareholder is Inversiones Lota Green SPA, with ownership of 27%. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 27% and 13%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.

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. We're not picking up on any analyst coverage of the stock at the moment, so the company is unlikely to be widely held.

Insider Ownership Of Sociedad Punta del Cobre

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 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 10% stake in Sociedad Punta del Cobre. 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 Sociedad Punta del Cobre 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:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Sociedad Punta del Cobre better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 3 warning signs for Sociedad Punta del Cobre (2 are a bit concerning) that you should be aware of.

Of course this may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free free list of interesting companies.

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.