Aker Solutions ASA's (OB:AKSO) market cap surged kr1.0b last week, private companies who have a lot riding on the company were rewarded

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by private companies in Aker Solutions indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• A total of 3 investors have a majority stake in the company with 52% ownership
• Institutional ownership in Aker Solutions is 17%

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Aker Solutions ASA (OB:AKSO), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. We can see that private companies own the lion's share in the company with 40% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

As a result, private companies collectively scored the highest last week as the company hit kr17b market cap following a 6.5% gain in the stock.

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

View our latest analysis for Aker Solutions

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Aker Solutions?

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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Aker Solutions. 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 Aker Solutions' historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Aker Solutions is not owned by hedge funds. Our data shows that The Resource Group Trg As is the largest shareholder with 40% of shares outstanding. With 6.3% and 5.8% of the shares outstanding respectively, Nærings- Og Fiskeridepartementet and Folketrygdfondet are the second and third largest shareholders.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 3 shareholders collectively control more than half of the company's shares, implying that they have considerable power to influence the company's decisions.

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 Aker Solutions

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. 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.

Our information suggests that Aker Solutions ASA insiders own under 1% of the company. But they may have an indirect interest through a corporate structure that we haven't picked up on. It is a pretty big company, so it would be possible for board members to own a meaningful interest in the company, without owning much of a proportional interest. In this case, they own around kr63m worth of shares (at current prices). It is always good to see at least some insider ownership, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 30% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Aker Solutions. 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

It seems that Private Companies own 40%, of the Aker Solutions 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 Aker Solutions better, we need to consider many other factors. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 5 warning signs for Aker Solutions (of which 2 are significant!) you should know about.

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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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.