With 37% ownership, Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft (ETR:BMW) insiders have a lot riding on the company's future

Key Insights

• Significant insider control over Bayerische Motoren Werke implies vested interests in company growth
• 51% of the business is held by the top 6 shareholders
• Institutional ownership in Bayerische Motoren Werke is 27%

If you want to know who really controls Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft (ETR:BMW), 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 individual insiders with 37% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

So, insiders of Bayerische Motoren Werke have a lot at stake and every decision they make on the company’s future is important to them from a financial point of view.

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

View our latest analysis for Bayerische Motoren Werke

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Bayerische Motoren Werke?

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.

Bayerische Motoren Werke already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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 Bayerische Motoren Werke's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Bayerische Motoren Werke. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Susanne Klatten with 20% of shares outstanding. Stefan Quandt is the second largest shareholder owning 16% of common stock, and AQTON SE holds about 8.8% of the company stock.

On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 6 shareholders, suggesting that the interests of the larger shareholders are balanced out to an extent by the smaller ones.

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 Bayerische Motoren Werke

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. 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.

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 most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft. It has a market capitalization of just €65b, and insiders have €24b worth of shares in their own names. That's quite significant. Most would say this shows a good degree of alignment with shareholders, especially in a company of this size. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 36% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. This size of ownership, while considerable, may not be enough to change company policy if the decision is not in sync with other large shareholders.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Bayerische Motoren Werke better, we need to consider many other factors. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 5 warning signs with Bayerische Motoren Werke (at least 1 which is a bit concerning) , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.

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.