Carl Zeiss Meditec AG's (ETR:AFX) market cap dropped €233m last week; individual investors who hold 59% were hit as were institutions

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by private companies in Carl Zeiss Meditec indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• 59% of the company is held by a single shareholder (Carl Zeiss Stiftung AG)
• 25% of Carl Zeiss Meditec is held by Institutions

If you want to know who really controls Carl Zeiss Meditec AG (ETR:AFX), 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 private companies with 59% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

While institutions, who own 25% shares weren’t spared from last week’s €233m market cap drop, private companies as a group suffered the maximum losses

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

See our latest analysis for Carl Zeiss Meditec

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Carl Zeiss Meditec?

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.

Carl Zeiss Meditec 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 Carl Zeiss Meditec's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Carl Zeiss Meditec. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Carl Zeiss Stiftung AG with 59% of shares outstanding. With such a huge stake in the ownership, we infer that they have significant control of the future of the company. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 2.9% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 2.1% by the third-largest shareholder.

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

Insider Ownership Of Carl Zeiss Meditec

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. 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.

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. Given we are not picking up on insider ownership, we may have missing data. Therefore, it would be interesting to assess the CEO compensation and tenure, here.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 16% stake in Carl Zeiss Meditec. 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 59%, of the Carl Zeiss Meditec stock. 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.

Next Steps:

I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for Carl Zeiss Meditec that you should be aware of.

If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its 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.

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

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