Unipol Gruppo S.p.A.'s (BIT:UNI) stock price dropped 3.6% last week; private companies would not be happy

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by private companies in Unipol Gruppo indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• 51% of the business is held by the top 4 shareholders
• Institutions own 22% of Unipol Gruppo

Every investor in Unipol Gruppo S.p.A. (BIT:UNI) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 42% to be precise, is private companies. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

And last week, private companies endured the biggest losses as the stock fell by 3.6%.

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

View our latest analysis for Unipol Gruppo

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Unipol Gruppo?

Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices.

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

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Unipol Gruppo. Coop Italia Società Cooperativa is currently the largest shareholder, with 42% of shares outstanding. With 4.3% and 2.3% of the shares outstanding respectively, Cooperare Spa and Norges Bank Investment Management are the second and third largest shareholders.

On looking further, we found that 51% of the shares are owned by the top 4 shareholders. In other words, these shareholders have a meaningful say in the decisions of the company.

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 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 Unipol Gruppo

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. 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 data cannot confirm that board members are holding shares personally. Given we are not picking up on insider ownership, we may have missing data. Therefore, it would be interesting to assess the CEO compensation and tenure, here.

General Public Ownership

With a 36% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Unipol Gruppo. 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 42%, of the Unipol Gruppo 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:

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. To that end, you should be aware of the 2 warning signs we've spotted with Unipol Gruppo .

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.