Private companies are Public Power Corporation S.A.'s (ATH:PPC) biggest owners and were rewarded after market cap rose by €206m last week

Key Insights

• Public Power's significant private companies ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• 56% of the business is held by the top 3 shareholders
• Institutional ownership in Public Power is 11%

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Public Power Corporation S.A. (ATH:PPC), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 48% to be precise, is private companies. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

As a result, private companies collectively scored the highest last week as the company hit €4.7b market cap following a 4.6% gain in the stock.

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

Check out our latest analysis for Public Power

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Public Power?

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.

Public Power already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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 Public Power's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Our data indicates that hedge funds own 7.6% of Public Power. That catches my attention because hedge funds sometimes try to influence management, or bring about changes that will create near term value for shareholders. Our data shows that Hellenic Corporation of Assets & Participations S.A. is the largest shareholder with 37% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 11% and 7.6% of the stock.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 3 shareholders collectively control more than half of the company's shares, implying that they have considerable power to influence the company's decisions.

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 Public Power

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. The company management answer to the board and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board themselves.

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.

We note our data does not show any board members holding shares, personally. It is unusual not to have at least some personal holdings by board members, so our data might be flawed. A good next step would be to check how much the CEO is paid.

General Public Ownership

With a 33% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Public Power. 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

It seems that Private Companies own 48%, of the Public Power stock. It's hard to draw any conclusions from this fact alone, so its worth looking into who owns those private companies. Sometimes insiders or other related parties have an interest in shares in a public company through a separate private company.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. To that end, you should learn about the 2 warning signs we've spotted with Public Power (including 1 which is a bit concerning) .

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.