retail investors who own 47% along with institutions invested in Piraeus Financial Holdings S.A. (ATH:TPEIR) saw increase in their holdings value last week

Key Insights

• Significant control over Piraeus Financial Holdings by retail investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• 46% of the business is held by the top 25 shareholders
• Institutional ownership in Piraeus Financial Holdings is 34%

If you want to know who really controls Piraeus Financial Holdings S.A. (ATH:TPEIR), 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 47% to be precise, is retail investors. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

While retail investors were the group that reaped the most benefits after last week’s 5.9% price gain, institutions also received a 34% cut.

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

See our latest analysis for Piraeus Financial Holdings

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Piraeus Financial Holdings?

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.

We can see that Piraeus Financial Holdings 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. 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 Piraeus Financial Holdings, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

It looks like hedge funds own 19% of Piraeus Financial Holdings shares. That worth noting, since hedge funds are often quite active investors, who may try to influence management. Many want to see value creation (and a higher share price) in the short term or medium term. Paulson & Co. Inc. is currently the largest shareholder, with 19% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 3.3% and 3.2% of the stock.

Our studies suggest that the top 25 shareholders collectively control less than half of the company's shares, meaning that the company's shares are widely disseminated and there is no dominant shareholder.

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 Piraeus Financial Holdings

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

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.

We note our data does not show any board members holding shares, personally. Not all jurisdictions have the same rules around disclosing insider ownership, and it is possible we have missed something, here. So you can click here learn more about the CEO.

General Public Ownership

With a 47% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Piraeus Financial Holdings. 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.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Piraeus Financial Holdings better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 1 warning sign for Piraeus Financial Holdings that you should be aware of before investing here.

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.