Is Prosegur Compañía de Seguridad, S.A.'s (BME:PSG) Shareholder Ownership Skewed Towards Insiders?

A look at the shareholders of Prosegur Compañía de Seguridad, S.A. (BME:PSG) can tell us which group is most powerful. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders. I quite like to see at least a little bit of insider ownership. As Charlie Munger said 'Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome.

With a market capitalization of €1.5b, Prosegur Compañía de Seguridad is a decent size, so it is probably on the radar of institutional investors. Taking a look at our data on the ownership groups (below), it seems that institutional investors have bought into the company. We can zoom in on the different ownership groups, to learn more about Prosegur Compañía de Seguridad.

See our latest analysis for Prosegur Compañía de Seguridad

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Prosegur Compañía de Seguridad?

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.

Prosegur Compañía de Seguridad 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 Prosegur Compañía de Seguridad's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Prosegur Compañía de Seguridad. Gubel, S.L. is currently the largest shareholder, with 60% of shares outstanding. This essentially means that they have extensive influence, if not outright control, over the future of the corporation. With 6.4% and 4.3% of the shares outstanding respectively, Mirta Maria Giesso Cazenave and FMR LLC are the second and third largest shareholders.

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 plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of Prosegur Compañía de Seguridad

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. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

I can report that insiders do own shares in Prosegur Compañía de Seguridad, 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 €98m 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, with a 11% stake in the company, will not 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.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 60%, of the Prosegur Compañía de Seguridad stock. It might be worth looking deeper into this. If related parties, such as insiders, have an interest in one of these private companies, that should be disclosed in the annual report. Private companies may also have a strategic interest in the company.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for Prosegur Compañía de Seguridad (of which 2 can't be ignored!) 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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