While institutions invested in MedinCell S.A. (EPA:MEDCL) benefited from last week's 10% gain, retail investors stood to gain the most

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by retail investors in MedinCell indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• A total of 17 investors have a majority stake in the company with 50% ownership
• 17% of MedinCell is held by insiders

Every investor in MedinCell S.A. (EPA:MEDCL) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 49% to be precise, is retail investors. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

While retail investors were the group that reaped the most benefits after last week’s 10% price gain, institutions also received a 25% cut.

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

View our latest analysis for MedinCell

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About MedinCell?

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.

MedinCell 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. 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 MedinCell, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in MedinCell. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Mirova Société Anonyme with 7.9% of shares outstanding. With 6.7% and 5.8% of the shares outstanding respectively, Anh Nguyen and Sabine Nguyen are the second and third largest shareholders.

Looking at the shareholder registry, we can see that 50% of the ownership is controlled by the top 17 shareholders, meaning that no single shareholder has a majority interest in the ownership.

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 MedinCell

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. 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.

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.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of MedinCell S.A.. Insiders own €33m worth of shares in the €197m company. We would say this shows alignment with shareholders, but it is worth noting that the company is still quite small; some insiders may have founded the business. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 49% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. This size of ownership, while considerable, may not be enough to change company policy if the decision is not in sync with other large shareholders.

Private Equity Ownership

Private equity firms hold a 5.3% stake in MedinCell. This suggests they can be influential in key policy decisions. Some might like this, because private equity are sometimes activists who hold management accountable. But other times, private equity is selling out, having taking the company public.

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. Be aware that MedinCell is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those is a bit unpleasant...

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

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.

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

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.