Private companies among S.A. Fountaine Pajot's (EPA:ALFPC) largest stockholders and were hit after last week's 14% price drop

Key Insights

• S.A. Fountaine Pajot's significant private companies ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• La Compagnie Du Catamaran SAS owns 53% of the company
• 22% of S.A. Fountaine Pajot is held by Institutions

If you want to know who really controls S.A. Fountaine Pajot (EPA:ALFPC), 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 53% to be precise, is private companies. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

As market cap fell to €213m last week, private companies would have faced the highest losses than any other shareholder groups of the company.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of S.A. Fountaine Pajot.

See our latest analysis for S.A. Fountaine Pajot

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About S.A. Fountaine Pajot?

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.

S.A. Fountaine Pajot 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. 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 S.A. Fountaine Pajot's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in S.A. Fountaine Pajot. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is La Compagnie Du Catamaran SAS with 53% of shares outstanding. This essentially means that they have extensive influence, if not outright control, over the future of the corporation. With 6.0% and 3.2% of the shares outstanding respectively, Moneta Asset Management and Amplegest SAS are the second and third largest shareholders.

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. There is some analyst coverage of the stock, but it could still become more well known, with time.

Insider Ownership Of S.A. Fountaine Pajot

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.

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.

We note our data does not show any board members holding shares, personally. Given we are not picking up on insider ownership, we may have missing data. Therefore, it would be interesting to assess the CEO compensation and tenure, here.

General Public Ownership

With a 25% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over S.A. Fountaine Pajot. 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

We can see that Private Companies own 53%, of the shares on issue. 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:

I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Take risks for example - S.A. Fountaine Pajot has 2 warning signs we think you should be aware of.

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.