Moltiply Group S.p.A.'s (BIT:MOL) stock price dropped 8.1% last week; private companies would not be happy

Key Insights

• Significant control over Moltiply Group by private 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 57% ownership
• Insiders have been buying lately

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If you want to know who really controls Moltiply Group S.p.A. (BIT:MOL), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. We can see that private companies own the lion's share in the company with 39% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

While insiders who own 24% came under pressure after market cap dropped to €1.6b last week,private companies took the most losses.

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

Check out our latest analysis for Moltiply Group

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Moltiply Group?

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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Moltiply Group. 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. 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 Moltiply Group'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 Moltiply Group. The company's largest shareholder is Alma Ventures S.A., with ownership of 35%. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 23% and 4.2% of the stock. Additionally, the company's CEO Alessandro Alvaro Fracassi directly holds 0.8% of the total shares outstanding.

A more detailed study of the shareholder registry showed us that 2 of the top shareholders have a considerable amount of ownership in the company, via their 57% stake.

While it makes sense to study institutional ownership data for a company, it also makes sense to study analyst sentiments to know which way the wind is blowing. 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 Moltiply Group

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. 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.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of Moltiply Group S.p.A.. Insiders own €402m worth of shares in the €1.6b company. That's quite meaningful. 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

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 22% stake in Moltiply Group. 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 39%, of the Moltiply Group 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.

Next Steps:

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

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.

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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.