thyssenkrupp AG's (ETR:TKA) market cap touched €2.1b last week, benefiting both individual investors who own 48% as well as institutions

Key Insights

• thyssenkrupp's significant individual investors ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• 50% of the business is held by the top 16 shareholders
• 47% of thyssenkrupp is held by Institutions

To get a sense of who is truly in control of thyssenkrupp AG (ETR:TKA), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. With 48% stake, individual investors possess the maximum shares in the company. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

While individual investors were the group that benefitted the most from last week’s €68m market cap gain, institutions too had a 47% share in those profits.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of thyssenkrupp.

Check out our latest analysis for thyssenkrupp

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About thyssenkrupp?

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.

thyssenkrupp 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. 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 thyssenkrupp's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in thyssenkrupp. Alfried Krupp Von Bohlen Und Halbach Stiftung, Endowment Arm is currently the largest shareholder, with 21% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 5.0% and 3.2% of the stock.

Looking at the shareholder registry, we can see that 50% of the ownership is controlled by the top 16 shareholders, meaning that no single shareholder has a majority interest in the ownership.

While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of thyssenkrupp

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.

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.

Our data suggests that insiders own under 1% of thyssenkrupp AG in their own names. It's a big company, so even a small proportional interest can create alignment between the board and shareholders. In this case insiders own €499k worth of shares. It is good to see board members owning shares, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 48% stake in thyssenkrupp. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

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. Be aware that thyssenkrupp is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis , you should know about...

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.