While private companies own 24% of Colbún S.A. (SNSE:COLBUN), public companies are its largest shareholders with 35% ownership

Key Insights

• Significant control over Colbún by public companies implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• 59% of the business is held by the top 3 shareholders
• 20% of Colbún is held by Institutions

A look at the shareholders of Colbún S.A. (SNSE:COLBUN) can tell us which group is most powerful. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 35% to be precise, is public companies. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

And private companies on the other hand have a 24% ownership in the company.

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

Check out 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.

We can see that Colbún does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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. 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.

Colbún is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Minera Valparaiso S.A. with 35% of shares outstanding. With 14% and 9.6% of the shares outstanding respectively, Matte Group and Inversiones Angelini Y Compania Limitada are the second and third largest shareholders.

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.

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 Colbún

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.

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

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

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 21% 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 24%, of the Colbún 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.

Public Company Ownership

We can see that public companies hold 35% of the Colbún shares on issue. This may be a strategic interest and the two companies may have related business interests. It could be that they have de-merged. This holding is probably worth investigating further.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Colbún better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 2 warning signs for Colbún (1 shouldn't be ignored!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.

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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com