Individual investors who have a significant stake must be disappointed along with institutions after Pandora A/S' (CPH:PNDORA) market cap dropped by kr.3.8b

Key Insights

• Significant control over Pandora by individual investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• A total of 25 investors have a majority stake in the company with 38% ownership
• Institutions own 46% of Pandora

If you want to know who really controls Pandora A/S (CPH:PNDORA), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 49% to be precise, is individual investors. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Following a 4.0% decrease in the stock price last week, individual investors suffered the most losses, but institutions who own 46% stock also took a hit.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Pandora, beginning with the chart below.

See our latest analysis for Pandora

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Pandora?

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.

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

It looks like hedge funds own 5.2% of Pandora shares. That catches my attention because hedge funds sometimes try to influence management, or bring about changes that will create near term value for shareholders. BlackRock, Inc. is currently the largest shareholder, with 8.9% of shares outstanding. With 5.2% and 4.0% of the shares outstanding respectively, Parvus Asset Management Europe Limited and The Vanguard Group, Inc. are the second and third largest shareholders.

Our studies suggest that the top 25 shareholders collectively control less than half of the company's shares, meaning that the company's shares are widely disseminated and there is no dominant shareholder.

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 Pandora

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. 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 Pandora A/S in their own names. As it is a large company, we'd only expect insiders to own a small percentage of it. But it's worth noting that they own kr.488m worth of shares. In this sort of situation, it can be more interesting to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 49% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Pandora. 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 Pandora better, we need to consider many other factors. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 2 warning signs with Pandora , 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.