Retail investors account for 42% of La Française des Jeux Société anonyme's (EPA:FDJ) ownership, while state or government account for 20%

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by retail investors in La Française des Jeux Société anonyme indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• A total of 9 investors have a majority stake in the company with 51% ownership
• Institutional ownership in La Française des Jeux Société anonyme is 16%

A look at the shareholders of La Française des Jeux Société anonyme (EPA:FDJ) can tell us which group is most powerful. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 42% to be precise, is retail investors. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

And state or government on the other hand have a 20% ownership in the company.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of La Française des Jeux Société anonyme, beginning with the chart below.

Check out our latest analysis for La Française des Jeux Société anonyme

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About La Française des Jeux Société anonyme?

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 La Française des Jeux Société anonyme 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. 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 La Française des Jeux Société anonyme's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

La Française des Jeux Société anonyme is not owned by hedge funds. France is currently the largest shareholder, with 20% of shares outstanding. Union Des Blesses De La Face Et La Tete is the second largest shareholder owning 10% of common stock, and Amundi Asset Management holds about 5.1% of the company stock.

We also observed that the top 9 shareholders account for more than half of the share register, with a few smaller shareholders to balance the interests of the larger ones to a certain extent.

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 La Française des Jeux Société anonyme

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 La Française des Jeux Société anonyme insiders own under 1% of the company. However, it's possible that insiders might have an indirect interest through a more complex structure. Keep in mind that it's a big company, and the insiders own €167k worth of shares. The absolute value might be more important than the proportional share. Arguably, recent buying and selling is just as important to consider. You can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 42% 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 18%, of the La Française des Jeux Société anonyme 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:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Take risks for example - La Française des Jeux Société anonyme has 1 warning sign 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.