OVS S.p.A.'s (BIT:OVS) stock price dropped 6.4% last week; retail investors would not be happy

Key Insights

• OVS' significant retail investors ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• 50% of the business is held by the top 5 shareholders
• Institutional ownership in OVS is 19%

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If you want to know who really controls OVS S.p.A. (BIT:OVS), 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 retail investors with 44% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

As market cap fell to €732m last week, retail investors would have faced the highest losses than any other shareholder groups of the company.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of OVS, beginning with the chart below.

View our latest analysis for OVS

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About OVS?

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.

OVS already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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 OVS' earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in OVS. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Tamburi Investment Partners S.p.A. with 37% of shares outstanding. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP is the second largest shareholder owning 5.2% of common stock, and American Century Investment Management Inc holds about 3.8% of the company stock.

On looking further, we found that 50% of the shares are owned by the top 5 shareholders. In other words, these shareholders have a meaningful say in the decisions of the company.

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

Insider Ownership Of OVS

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.

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.

We note our data does not show any board members holding shares, personally. It is unusual not to have at least some personal holdings by board members, so our data might be flawed. A good next step would be to check how much the CEO is paid.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 44% stake in OVS. 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 Equity Ownership

With a stake of 37%, private equity firms could influence the OVS board. Sometimes we see private equity stick around for the long term, but generally speaking they have a shorter investment horizon and -- as the name suggests -- don't invest in public companies much. After some time they may look to sell and redeploy capital elsewhere.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand OVS better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for OVS that you should be aware of.

If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its future.

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.