While individual investors own 25% of Aguas Andinas S.A. (SNSE:AGUAS-A), private companies are its largest shareholders with 51% ownership

Key Insights

• Significant control over Aguas Andinas by private companies implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• The largest shareholder of the company is Suez Inversiones Aguas del Gran Santiago Limitada with a 50% stake
• 19% of Aguas Andinas is held by Institutions

If you want to know who really controls Aguas Andinas S.A. (SNSE:AGUAS-A), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 51% to be precise, is private companies. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

Individual investors, on the other hand, account for 25% of the company's stockholders.

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

View our latest analysis for Aguas Andinas

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Aguas Andinas?

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.

We can see that Aguas Andinas does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. 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 Aguas Andinas' historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Aguas Andinas is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Suez Inversiones Aguas del Gran Santiago Limitada with 50% of shares outstanding. This implies that they have majority interest control of the future of the company. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 5.0% and 2.2% of the stock.

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 Aguas Andinas

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. 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. 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 25% stake in Aguas Andinas. 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

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 51%, of the company's shares. 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:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Aguas Andinas better, we need to consider many other factors. To that end, you should learn about the 2 warning signs we've spotted with Aguas Andinas (including 1 which is potentially serious) .

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.