With 54% ownership in De'Longhi S.p.A. (BIT:DLG), insiders continue to have the largest holding even though they have sold shares recently

Key Insights

• Significant insider control over De'Longhi implies vested interests in company growth
• Giuseppe de' Longhi owns 54% of the company
• Insiders have been selling lately

If you want to know who really controls De'Longhi S.p.A. (BIT:DLG), 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 individual insiders with 54% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

And insiders own the top position in the company’s share registry despite recent sales.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of De'Longhi.

View our latest analysis for De'Longhi

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About De'Longhi?

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 De'Longhi 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. 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 De'Longhi's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in De'Longhi. Our data suggests that Giuseppe de' Longhi, who is also the company's Top Key Executive, holds the most number of shares at 54%. When an insider holds a sizeable amount of a company's stock, investors consider it as a positive sign because it suggests that insiders are willing to have their wealth tied up in the future of the company. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 6.2% and 4.9% of the stock.

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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of De'Longhi

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.

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

It seems that insiders own more than half the De'Longhi S.p.A. stock. This gives them a lot of power. Given it has a market cap of €4.2b, that means insiders have a whopping €2.2b worth of shares in their own names. It is good to see this level of investment. You can check here to see if those insiders have been selling any of their shares.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 18% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. 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.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand De'Longhi better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 2 warning signs for De'Longhi that you should be aware of before investing here.

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.