Public companies are Colbún S.A.'s (SNSE:COLBUN) biggest owners and were hit after market cap dropped CL$72b

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by public companies in Colbún indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• A total of 3 investors have a majority stake in the company with 59% ownership
• Institutional ownership in Colbún is 20%

If you want to know who really controls Colbún S.A. (SNSE:COLBUN), 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 public companies with 35% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

And following last week's 3.3% decline in share price, public companies suffered the most losses.

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

See our latest analysis for Colbún

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Colbún?

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.

Colbún already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Colbún's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Colbún. Minera Valparaiso S.A. is currently the company's largest shareholder with 35% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 14% and 9.6% of the stock.

To make our study more interesting, we found that the top 3 shareholders have a majority ownership in the company, meaning that they are powerful enough to influence the decisions of the company.

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 plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of Colbún

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.

Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

Our data cannot confirm that board members are holding shares personally. It is unusual not to have at least some personal holdings by board members, so our data might be flawed. A good next step would be to check how much the CEO is paid.

General Public Ownership

With a 22% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Colbún. 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 24%, of the company's shares. 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.

Public Company Ownership

Public companies currently own 35% of Colbún stock. We can't be certain but it is quite possible this is a strategic stake. The businesses may be similar, or work together.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. For instance, we've identified 4 warning signs for Colbún (1 is a bit concerning) that you should be aware of.

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

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.