What Kind Of Shareholders Hold The Majority In ACS, Actividades de Construcción y Servicios, S.A.'s (BME:ACS) Shares?

The big shareholder groups in ACS, Actividades de Construcción y Servicios, S.A. (BME:ACS) have power over the company. Large companies usually have institutions as shareholders, and we usually see insiders owning shares in smaller companies. Companies that have been privatized tend to have low insider ownership.

ACS Actividades de Construcción y Servicios is a pretty big company. It has a market capitalization of €6.1b. Normally institutions would own a significant portion of a company this size. Taking a look at our data on the ownership groups (below), it seems that institutions own shares in the company. Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about ACS Actividades de Construcción y Servicios.

See our latest analysis for ACS Actividades de Construcción y Servicios

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About ACS Actividades de Construcción y Servicios?

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.

ACS Actividades de Construcción y Servicios 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. 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 ACS Actividades de Construcción y Servicios' earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in ACS Actividades de Construcción y Servicios. The company's largest shareholder is Rosan Inversiones, S.L., with ownership of 15%. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 7.5% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 5.4% by the third-largest shareholder.

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 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 ACS Actividades de Construcción y Servicios

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.

Shareholders would probably be interested to learn that insiders own shares in ACS, Actividades de Construcción y Servicios, S.A.. It is a pretty big company, so it is generally a positive to see some potentially meaningful alignment. In this case, they own around €76m worth of shares (at current prices). Most would say this shows alignment of interests between shareholders and the board. Still, it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 48% stake in ACS Actividades de Construcción y Servicios. This size of ownership, while considerable, may not be enough to change company policy if the decision is not in sync with other large shareholders.

Private Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 21%, of the shares on issue. Private companies may be related parties. Sometimes insiders have an interest in a public company through a holding in a private company, rather than in their own capacity as an individual. While it's hard to draw any broad stroke conclusions, it is worth noting as an area for further research.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand ACS Actividades de Construcción y Servicios better, we need to consider many other factors. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for ACS Actividades de Construcción y Servicios you should know about.

If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.

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.