Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust Limited's (LON:SREI) one-year returns climbed after last week's 10% gain, institutional investors must be happy

Key Insights

• Given the large stake in the stock by institutions, Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust's stock price might be vulnerable to their trading decisions
• 52% of the business is held by the top 5 shareholders
• Past performance of a company along with ownership data serve to give a strong idea about prospects for a business

If you want to know who really controls Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust Limited (LON:SREI), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 63% to be precise, is institutions. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

And last week, institutional investors ended up benefitting the most after the company hit UK£214m in market cap. One-year return to shareholders is currently 1.8% and last week’s gain was the icing on the cake.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust.

View our latest analysis for Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust?

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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust. 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. 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 Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust is not owned by hedge funds. The company's largest shareholder is Investec Wealth & Investment Limited, with ownership of 16%. Schroder Investment Management Limited is the second largest shareholder owning 14% of common stock, and Premier Fund Managers Ltd. holds about 8.5% of the company stock.

Our research also brought to light the fact that roughly 52% of the company is controlled by the top 5 shareholders suggesting that these owners wield significant influence on the business.

Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. We're not picking up on any analyst coverage of the stock at the moment, so the company is unlikely to be widely held.

Insider Ownership Of Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. 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 Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust Limited in their own names. It seems the board members have no more than UK£156k worth of shares in the UK£214m company. Many tend to prefer to see a board with bigger shareholdings. A good next step might be to take a look at this free summary of insider buying and selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 30% 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.

Public Company Ownership

We can see that public companies hold 7.0% of the Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust 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:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust (of which 1 doesn't sit too well with us!) you should know about.

Of course this may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free free list of interesting companies.

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.