Following a 19% decline over last year, recent gains may please Ceres Power Holdings plc (LON:CWR) institutional owners

Key Insights

• Institutions' substantial holdings in Ceres Power Holdings implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price
• The top 6 shareholders own 51% of the company
• Using data from analyst forecasts alongside ownership research, one can better assess the future performance of a company

If you want to know who really controls Ceres Power Holdings plc (LON:CWR), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are institutions with 51% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Last week's UK£122m market cap gain would probably be appreciated by institutional investors, especially after a year of 19% losses.

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

See our latest analysis for Ceres Power Holdings

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Ceres Power Holdings?

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 Ceres Power Holdings does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. 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 Ceres Power Holdings' 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 Ceres Power Holdings. Weichai Power Co., Ltd. is currently the company's largest shareholder with 20% of shares outstanding. With 17% and 3.7% of the shares outstanding respectively, Robert Bosch GmbH and M&G Investment Management Limited are the second and third largest shareholders.

On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 6 shareholders, suggesting that the interests of the larger shareholders are balanced out to an extent by the smaller ones.

While it makes sense to study institutional ownership data for a company, it also makes sense to study analyst sentiments to know which way the wind is blowing. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Ceres Power Holdings

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.

Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

Our data suggests that insiders own under 1% of Ceres Power Holdings plc in their own names. But they may have an indirect interest through a corporate structure that we haven't picked up on. It seems the board members have no more than UK£1.6m worth of shares in the UK£490m company. 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, who are usually individual investors, hold a 12% stake in Ceres Power Holdings. 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 Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 18%, of the Ceres Power Holdings 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

Public companies currently own 20% of Ceres Power Holdings stock. We can't be certain but it is quite possible this is a strategic stake. The businesses may be similar, or work together.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Ceres Power Holdings better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 2 warning signs for Ceres Power Holdings (1 is concerning) that you should be aware of.

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.

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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.