Private companies among Bastide Le Confort Médical SA's (EPA:BLC) largest shareholders, saw gain in holdings value after stock jumped 11% last week

Key Insights

• Bastide Le Confort Médical's significant private companies ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• 53% of the company is held by a single shareholder (Societe d'Investissement Bastide SAS)
• 16% of Bastide Le Confort Médical is held by Institutions

Every investor in Bastide Le Confort Médical SA (EPA:BLC) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are private companies with 53% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

As a result, private companies were the biggest beneficiaries of last week’s 11% gain.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Bastide Le Confort Médical.

Check out our latest analysis for Bastide Le Confort Médical

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Bastide Le Confort Médical?

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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Bastide Le Confort Médical. 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. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of Bastide Le Confort Médical, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Bastide Le Confort Médical is not owned by hedge funds. Societe d'Investissement Bastide SAS is currently the company's largest shareholder with 53% of shares outstanding. This implies that they have majority interest control of the future of the company. Lazard Frères Gestion SAS is the second largest shareholder owning 2.9% of common stock, and CM-CIC Asset Management SA holds about 1.9% of the company stock.

While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. 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 Bastide Le Confort Médical

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

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 Bastide Le Confort Médical SA. However, it's possible that insiders might have an indirect interest through a more complex structure. It has a market capitalization of just €149m, and the board has only €163k worth of shares in their own names. Many investors in smaller companies prefer to see the board more heavily invested. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 31% 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 53%, of the Bastide Le Confort Médical 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:

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. To that end, you should learn about the 4 warning signs we've spotted with Bastide Le Confort Médical (including 1 which shouldn't be ignored) .

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.

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