CRISIL Limited's (NSE:CRISIL) 5.0% loss last week hit both individual investors who own 51% as well as institutions

A look at the shareholders of CRISIL Limited (NSE:CRISIL) can tell us which group is most powerful. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are public companies with 51% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

While the holdings of public companies took a hit after last week’s 5.0% price drop, institutions with their 16% holdings also suffered.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of CRISIL.

Check out our latest analysis for CRISIL

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About CRISIL?

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 CRISIL does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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 CRISIL's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in CRISIL. Our data shows that S&P Global Inc. is the largest shareholder with 51% of shares outstanding. This implies that they have majority interest control of the future of the company. S&P Global Asian Holdings Pte. Limited is the second largest shareholder owning 16% of common stock, and Life Insurance Corporation of India, Asset Management Arm holds about 5.9% of the company stock.

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 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 CRISIL

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. 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 can see that insiders own shares in CRISIL Limited. It is a pretty big company, so it is generally a positive to see some potentially meaningful alignment. In this case, they own around ₹13b worth of shares (at current prices). If you would like to explore the question of insider alignment, you can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 11% stake in CRISIL. This size of ownership, while considerable, may not be enough to change company policy if the decision is not in sync with other large shareholders.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 16%, of the CRISIL 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.

Public Company Ownership

We can see that public companies hold 51% of the CRISIL shares on issue. This may be a strategic interest and the two companies may have related business interests. It could be that they have de-merged. This holding is probably worth investigating further.

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.

I always like to check for a history of revenue growth. You can too, by accessing this free chart of historic revenue and earnings in this detailed graph.

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.

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.