Institutional investors own a significant stake of 40% in BIG Shopping Centers Ltd (TLV:BIG)

Key Insights

• Institutions' substantial holdings in BIG Shopping Centers implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price
• A total of 4 investors have a majority stake in the company with 56% ownership
• 25% of BIG Shopping Centers is held by insiders

If you want to know who really controls BIG Shopping Centers Ltd (TLV:BIG), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. We can see that institutions own the lion's share in the company with 40% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Since institutional have access to huge amounts of capital, their market moves tend to receive a lot of scrutiny by retail or individual investors. Therefore, a good portion of institutional money invested in the company is usually a huge vote of confidence on its future.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about BIG Shopping Centers.

View our latest analysis for BIG Shopping Centers

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About BIG Shopping Centers?

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.

We can see that BIG Shopping Centers 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. 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 BIG Shopping Centers' earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in BIG Shopping Centers. Because actions speak louder than words, we consider it a good sign when insiders own a significant stake in a company. In BIG Shopping Centers' case, its Top Key Executive, Yehuda Naftali, is the largest shareholder, holding 23% of shares outstanding. With 12% and 11% of the shares outstanding respectively, Omarim (Hazor) Ltd and Mega Or Holdings Ltd are the second and third largest shareholders.

On looking further, we found that 56% of the shares are owned by the top 4 shareholders. In other words, these shareholders have a meaningful say in the decisions of the company.

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. 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 BIG Shopping Centers

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.

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 most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of BIG Shopping Centers Ltd. It is very interesting to see that insiders have a meaningful ₪2.4b stake in this ₪9.6b business. Most would be pleased to see the board is investing alongside them. You may wish to access this free chart showing recent trading by insiders.

General Public Ownership

With a 11% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over BIG Shopping Centers. 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 12%, 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.

Public Company Ownership

Public companies currently own 11% of BIG Shopping Centers stock. We can't be certain but it is quite possible this is a strategic stake. The businesses may be similar, or work together.

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. Be aware that BIG Shopping Centers is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those doesn't sit too well with us...

Of course this may not be the best stock to buy. Therefore, you may wish to see our free collection of interesting prospects boasting favorable financials.

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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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.