Recent uptick might appease Ubisoft Entertainment SA (EPA:UBI) institutional owners after losing 49% over the past year

Key Insights

• Significantly high institutional ownership implies Ubisoft Entertainment's stock price is sensitive to their trading actions
• 50% of the business is held by the top 7 shareholders
• Ownership research along with analyst forecasts data help provide a good understanding of opportunities in a stock

We've discovered 2 warning signs about Ubisoft Entertainment. View them for free.

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Ubisoft Entertainment SA (EPA:UBI), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. We can see that institutions own the lion's share in the company with 54% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Institutional investors would appreciate the 8.1% increase in share price last week, given their one-year losses have totalled a disappointing 49%.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Ubisoft Entertainment, beginning with the chart below.

See our latest analysis for Ubisoft Entertainment

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Ubisoft Entertainment?

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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Ubisoft Entertainment. 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 Ubisoft Entertainment's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. Hedge funds don't have many shares in Ubisoft Entertainment. Our data shows that Guillemot Brothers S.A. is the largest shareholder with 13% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 9.7% and 6.1%, of the shares outstanding, respectively. Additionally, the company's CEO Yves Guillemot directly holds 0.6% of the total shares outstanding.

We did some more digging and found that 7 of the top shareholders account for roughly 50% of the register, implying that along with larger shareholders, there are a few smaller shareholders, thereby balancing out each others interests somewhat.

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 plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of Ubisoft Entertainment

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. 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.

I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.

We can report that insiders do own shares in Ubisoft Entertainment SA. This is a big company, so it is good to see this level of alignment. Insiders own €20m worth of shares (at current prices). It is good to see this level of investment by insiders. You can check here to see if those insiders have been buying recently.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 16% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. 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

It seems that Private Companies own 13%, of the Ubisoft Entertainment 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.

Public Company Ownership

It appears to us that public companies own 10% of Ubisoft Entertainment. This may be a strategic interest and the two companies may have related business interests. It could be that they have de-merged. This holding is probably worth investigating further.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. To that end, you should learn about the 2 warning signs we've spotted with Ubisoft Entertainment (including 1 which can't be ignored) .

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.