Aker BP ASA's (OB:AKRBP) market cap dropped kr4.6b last week; individual investors who hold 32% were hit as were institutions

Key Insights

• Significant control over Aker BP by retail investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• 51% of the business is held by the top 7 shareholders
• Recent purchases by insiders

If you want to know who really controls Aker BP ASA (OB:AKRBP), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. We can see that retail investors own the lion's share in the company with 32% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

While institutions who own 25% came under pressure after market cap dropped to kr139b last week,retail investors took the most losses.

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

See our latest analysis for Aker BP

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Aker BP?

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.

We can see that Aker BP 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. 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 Aker BP'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 Aker BP. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is The Resource Group Trg As with 21% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 16% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 5.3% by the third-largest shareholder.

On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 7 shareholders, suggesting that the interests of the larger shareholders are balanced out to an extent by the smaller ones.

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. 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 Aker BP

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.

Our data suggests that insiders own under 1% of Aker BP ASA in their own names. But they may have an indirect interest through a corporate structure that we haven't picked up on. It is a very large company, so it would be surprising to see insiders own a large proportion of the company. Though their holding amounts to less than 1%, we can see that board members collectively own kr224m worth of shares (at current prices). 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 32% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Private Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 21%, of the shares on issue. It might be worth looking deeper into this. If related parties, such as insiders, have an interest in one of these private companies, that should be disclosed in the annual report. Private companies may also have a strategic interest in the company.

Public Company Ownership

Public companies currently own 16% of Aker BP stock. This may be a strategic interest and the two companies may have related business interests. It could be that they have de-merged. This holding is probably worth investigating further.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Aker BP better, we need to consider many other factors. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Aker BP you should know about.

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.