Public companies are Ayvens' (EPA:AYV) biggest owners and were hit after market cap dropped €286m

Key Insights

• Significant control over Ayvens by public companies implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• Société Générale Société anonyme owns 53% of the company
• Institutions own 12% of Ayvens

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To get a sense of who is truly in control of Ayvens (EPA:AYV), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. With 53% stake, public companies possess the maximum shares in the company. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

As market cap fell to €7.6b last week, public companies would have faced the highest losses than any other shareholder groups of the company.

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

Check out our latest analysis for Ayvens

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Ayvens?

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

Ayvens is not owned by hedge funds. Société Générale Société anonyme is currently the company's largest shareholder with 53% of shares outstanding. This essentially means that they have extensive influence, if not outright control, over the future of the corporation. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 9.5% and 8.1%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.

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 Ayvens

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. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

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.

Our data suggests that insiders own under 1% of Ayvens in their own names. We do note, however, it is possible insiders have an indirect interest through a private company or other corporate structure. It is a very large company, so it would be surprising to see insiders own a large proportion of the company. Though their holding amounts to less than 1%, we can see that board members collectively own €1.2m worth of shares (at current prices). In this sort of situation, it can be more interesting to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 14% stake in Ayvens. 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 21%, of the Ayvens stock. 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.

Public Company Ownership

We can see that public companies hold 53% of the Ayvens shares on issue. 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:

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. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for Ayvens (of which 1 can't be ignored!) you should know about.

If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its 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.