Both individual investors who control a good portion of BigBen Interactive (EPA:BIG) along with institutions must be dismayed after last week's 11% decrease

Key Insights

• Significant control over BigBen Interactive by individual investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• A total of 8 investors have a majority stake in the company with 51% ownership
• Insiders own 15% of BigBen Interactive

Every investor in BigBen Interactive (EPA:BIG) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are individual investors with 38% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

While institutions, who own 26% shares weren’t spared from last week’s €12m market cap drop, individual investors as a group suffered the maximum losses

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about BigBen Interactive.

See our latest analysis for BigBen Interactive

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About BigBen Interactive?

Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices.

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

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in BigBen Interactive. Bolloré Participations is currently the largest shareholder, with 21% of shares outstanding. Alain Falc is the second largest shareholder owning 14% of common stock, and Quaero Capital SA holds about 5.1% of the company stock.

On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 8 shareholders, suggesting that the interests of the larger shareholders are balanced out to an extent by the smaller ones.

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 BigBen Interactive

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.

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.

Our information suggests that insiders maintain a significant holding in BigBen Interactive. Insiders own €14m worth of shares in the €98m company. This may suggest that the founders still own a lot of shares. You can click here to see if they have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 38% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over BigBen Interactive. 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

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 21%, of the company's shares. 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:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand BigBen Interactive better, we need to consider many other factors. Case in point: We've spotted 3 warning signs for BigBen Interactive you should be aware of, and 1 of them is a bit concerning.

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.