Mizrahi Tefahot Bank Ltd. (TLV:MZTF) surges 6.7%; private companies who own 49% shares profited along with institutions

Key Insights

• Significant control over Mizrahi Tefahot Bank by private companies implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• A total of 5 investors have a majority stake in the company with 55% ownership
• Institutional ownership in Mizrahi Tefahot Bank is 38%

If you want to know who really controls Mizrahi Tefahot Bank Ltd. (TLV:MZTF), 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 private companies with 49% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Following a 6.7% increase in the stock price last week, private companies profited the most, but institutions who own 38% stock also stood to gain from the increase.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Mizrahi Tefahot Bank.

Check out our latest analysis for Mizrahi Tefahot Bank

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Mizrahi Tefahot Bank?

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.

Mizrahi Tefahot Bank 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 Mizrahi Tefahot Bank's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Mizrahi Tefahot Bank. The company's largest shareholder is L.I.N Holdings Ltd, with ownership of 21%. F & W (Registered Partnership) is the second largest shareholder owning 13% of common stock, and M.W.Z. Holdings Ltd. holds about 7.3% of the company stock.

To make our study more interesting, we found that the top 5 shareholders control more than half of the company which implies that this group has considerable sway over the company's decision-making.

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. There is a little analyst coverage of the stock, but not much. So there is room for it to gain more coverage.

Insider Ownership Of Mizrahi Tefahot Bank

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. 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.

We note our data does not show any board members holding shares, personally. Given we are not picking up on insider ownership, we may have missing data. Therefore, it would be interesting to assess the CEO compensation and tenure, here.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 14% stake in Mizrahi Tefahot Bank. 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

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 49%, of the company's shares. 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.

Next Steps:

I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Case in point: We've spotted 1 warning sign for Mizrahi Tefahot Bank 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.