Derichebourg SA's (EPA:DBG) market cap surged €51m last week, private companies who have a lot riding on the company were rewarded

Key Insights

• Significant control over Derichebourg by private companies implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• The top 2 shareholders own 50% of the company
• 23% of Derichebourg is held by Institutions

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Derichebourg SA (EPA:DBG), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are private companies with 41% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Clearly, private companies benefitted the most after the company's market cap rose by €51m last week.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Derichebourg.

Check out our latest analysis for Derichebourg

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Derichebourg?

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 Derichebourg does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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 Derichebourg's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Derichebourg. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is DBG Finances SCA with 41% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 8.9% and 2.3% of the stock.

A more detailed study of the shareholder registry showed us that 2 of the top shareholders have a considerable amount of ownership in the company, via their 50% stake.

Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Derichebourg

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.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own less than 1% of Derichebourg SA. But they may have an indirect interest through a corporate structure that we haven't picked up on. It appears that the board holds about €17k worth of stock. This compares to a market capitalization of €779m. Many tend to prefer to see a board with bigger shareholdings. A good next step might be to take a look at this free summary of insider buying and selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 35% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 41%, of the Derichebourg stock. It's hard to draw any conclusions from this fact alone, so its worth looking into who owns those private companies. Sometimes insiders or other related parties have an interest in shares in a public company through a separate private company.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Derichebourg better, we need to consider many other factors. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 4 warning signs for Derichebourg 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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com