Telefónica Deutschland Holding AG's (ETR:O2D) market cap surged €321m last week, public companies who have a lot riding on the company were rewarded

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by public companies in Telefónica Deutschland Holding indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• The largest shareholder of the company is Telefónica, S.A. with a 71% stake
• 14% of Telefónica Deutschland Holding is held by Institutions

If you want to know who really controls Telefónica Deutschland Holding AG (ETR:O2D), 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 public companies with 71% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Clearly, public companies benefitted the most after the company's market cap rose by €321m last week.

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

View our latest analysis for Telefónica Deutschland Holding

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Telefónica Deutschland Holding?

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 Telefónica Deutschland Holding does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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. 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 Telefónica Deutschland Holding, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Telefónica Deutschland Holding is not owned by hedge funds. Telefónica, S.A. is currently the largest shareholder, with 71% of shares outstanding. This essentially means that they have extensive influence, if not outright control, over the future of the corporation. BlackRock, Inc. is the second largest shareholder owning 3.0% of common stock, and The Vanguard Group, Inc. holds about 1.2% of the company stock.

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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Telefónica Deutschland Holding

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. 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. Not all jurisdictions have the same rules around disclosing insider ownership, and it is possible we have missed something, here. So you can click here learn more about the CEO.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 16% 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.

Public Company Ownership

We can see that public companies hold 71% of the Telefónica Deutschland Holding 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 Telefónica Deutschland Holding better, we need to consider many other factors. Be aware that Telefónica Deutschland Holding is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those is significant...

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.