Hydrogène de France Société anonyme (EPA:HDF) CEO Damian Havard, the company's largest shareholder sees 10% reduction in holdings value

Key Insights

• Hydrogène de France Société anonyme's significant insider ownership suggests inherent interests in company's expansion
• The top 2 shareholders own 62% of the company
• Using data from company's past performance alongside ownership research, one can better assess the future performance of a company

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Hydrogène de France Société anonyme (EPA:HDF), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are individual insiders with 56% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

And last week, insiders endured the biggest losses as the stock fell by 10%.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Hydrogène de France Société anonyme, beginning with the chart below.

Check out our latest analysis for Hydrogène de France Société anonyme

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Hydrogène de France Société anonyme?

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.

Less than 5% of Hydrogène de France Société anonyme is held by institutional investors. This suggests that some funds have the company in their sights, but many have not yet bought shares in it. So if the company itself can improve over time, we may well see more institutional buyers in the future. We sometimes see a rising share price when a few big institutions want to buy a certain stock at the same time. The history of earnings and revenue, which you can see below, could be helpful in considering if more institutional investors will want the stock. Of course, there are plenty of other factors to consider, too.

Hydrogène de France Société anonyme is not owned by hedge funds. With a 44% stake, CEO Damian Havard is the largest shareholder. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 18% and 12% of the stock. Interestingly, the third-largest shareholder, Jean Clavel is also a Member of the Board of Directors, again, indicating strong insider ownership amongst the company's top shareholders.

A more detailed study of the shareholder registry showed us that 2 of the top shareholders have a considerable amount of ownership in the company, via their 62% stake.

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 is some analyst coverage of the stock, but it could still become more well known, with time.

Insider Ownership Of Hydrogène de France Société anonyme

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

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 information suggests that insiders own more than half of Hydrogène de France Société anonyme. This gives them effective control of the company. That means they own €106m worth of shares in the €188m company. That's quite meaningful. Most would argue this is a positive, showing strong alignment with shareholders. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 19% stake in Hydrogène de France Société anonyme. 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

We can see that Private Companies own 5.6%, of the shares on issue. Private companies may be related parties. Sometimes insiders have an interest in a public company through a holding in a private company, rather than in their own capacity as an individual. While it's hard to draw any broad stroke conclusions, it is worth noting as an area for further research.

Public Company Ownership

Public companies currently own 18% of Hydrogène de France Société anonyme stock. 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. Be aware that Hydrogène de France Société anonyme is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , you should know about...

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.