Institutional investors may adopt severe steps after Vonovia SE's (ETR:VNA) latest 5.7% drop adds to a year losses

Key Insights

• Institutions' substantial holdings in Vonovia implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price
• 50% of the business is held by the top 23 shareholders
• Ownership research along with analyst forecasts data help provide a good understanding of opportunities in a stock

If you want to know who really controls Vonovia SE (ETR:VNA), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. With 58% stake, institutions possess the maximum shares in the company. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

As a result, institutional investors endured the highest losses last week after market cap fell by €986m. This set of investors may especially be concerned about the current loss, which adds to a one-year loss of 30% for shareholders. Also referred to as "smart money", institutions have a lot of sway over how a stock's price moves. As a result, if the downtrend continues, institutions may face pressures to sell Vonovia, which might have negative implications on individual investors.

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

Check out our latest analysis for Vonovia

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Vonovia?

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.

Vonovia 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. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of Vonovia, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. Vonovia is not owned by hedge funds. The company's largest shareholder is Norges Bank Investment Management, with ownership of 14%. BlackRock, Inc. is the second largest shareholder owning 6.9% of common stock, and Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP holds about 3.9% of the company stock.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 23 have the combined ownership of 50% in the company, suggesting that no single shareholder has significant control over 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 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 Vonovia

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

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.

We note our data does not show any board members 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 42% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Vonovia better, we need to consider many other factors. Case in point: We've spotted 3 warning signs for Vonovia you should be aware of, and 1 of them can't be ignored.

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.

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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.