Public companies among Adani Wilmar Limited's (NSE:AWL) largest shareholders, saw gain in holdings value after stock jumped 6.0% last week

Key Insights

• Significant control over Adani Wilmar by public companies implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• A total of 2 investors have a majority stake in the company with 74% ownership
• Ownership research along with analyst forecasts data help provide a good understanding of opportunities in a stock

A look at the shareholders of Adani Wilmar Limited (NSE:AWL) can tell us which group is most powerful. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 44% to be precise, is public companies. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

As a result, public companies were the biggest beneficiaries of last week’s 6.0% gain.

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

See our latest analysis for Adani Wilmar

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Adani Wilmar?

Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index.

Adani Wilmar already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. 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 Adani Wilmar's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Adani Wilmar. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Wilmar International Limited with 44% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 30% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 2.5% by the third-largest shareholder.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 2 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 Adani Wilmar

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. 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 information suggests that Adani Wilmar Limited insiders own under 1% of the company. However, it's possible that insiders might have an indirect interest through a more complex structure. It's a big company, so even a small proportional interest can create alignment between the board and shareholders. In this case insiders own ₹1.9m worth of shares. Arguably, recent buying and selling is just as important to consider. You can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 19% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. 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 30%, of the Adani Wilmar 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 44% of the Adani Wilmar shares on issue. It's hard to say for sure but this suggests they have entwined business interests. This might be a strategic stake, so it's worth watching this space for changes in ownership.

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 like to dive deeper into how a company has performed in the past. You can access this interactive graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow, for free.

If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.

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.