After losing 31% in the past year, Uniphar plc (ISE:UPR) institutional owners must be relieved by the recent gain

Key Insights

• Given the large stake in the stock by institutions, Uniphar's stock price might be vulnerable to their trading decisions
• The top 10 shareholders own 51% of the company
• Recent purchases by insiders

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Uniphar plc (ISE:UPR), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. With 49% stake, institutions possess the maximum shares in the company. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Institutional investors would probably welcome last week's 9.2% increase in share prices after a year of 31% losses as a sign that returns are likely to begin trending higher.

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

See our latest analysis for Uniphar

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Uniphar?

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.

Uniphar 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. 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 Uniphar's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Our data indicates that hedge funds own 6.4% of Uniphar. 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. The company's largest shareholder is Allianz Asset Management GmbH, with ownership of 11%. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 7.4% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 6.4% by the third-largest shareholder. In addition, we found that Gerard Rabbette, the CEO has 2.9% of the shares allocated to their name.

We also observed that the top 10 shareholders account for more than half of the share register, with a few smaller shareholders to balance the interests of the larger ones to a certain extent.

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 Uniphar

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.

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 can see that insiders own shares in Uniphar plc. In their own names, insiders own €31m worth of stock in the €614m company. This shows at least some alignment. 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 29% stake in Uniphar. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Private Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 11%, of the shares on issue. 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:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Uniphar better, we need to consider many other factors. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for Uniphar (of which 1 is concerning!) you should know about.

If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its 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.