BW Offshore Limited's (OB:BWO) market cap touched kr5.8b last week, benefiting both private companies who own 51% as well as institutions

Key Insights

• Significant control over BW Offshore by private companies implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• 62% of the business is held by the top 2 shareholders
• 28% of BW Offshore is held by Institutions

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A look at the shareholders of BW Offshore Limited (OB:BWO) can tell us which group is most powerful. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are private companies with 51% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

While private companies were the group that benefitted the most from last week’s kr678m market cap gain, institutions too had a 28% share in those profits.

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

See our latest analysis for BW Offshore

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About BW Offshore?

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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in BW Offshore. 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. 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 BW Offshore's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

BW Offshore is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Sohmen Family Foundation with 50% of shares outstanding. Cobas Asset Management, SGIIC, SA is the second largest shareholder owning 13% of common stock, and Salt Value AS holds about 2.9% of the company stock.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 2 shareholders collectively control more than half of the company's shares, implying that they have considerable power to influence the company's decisions.

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 BW Offshore

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 suggests that insiders own under 1% of BW Offshore Limited in their own names. We do note, however, it is possible insiders have an indirect interest through a private company or other corporate structure. It appears that the board holds about kr44m worth of stock. This compares to a market capitalization of kr5.8b. Many investors in smaller companies prefer to see the board more heavily invested. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 21% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. 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 51%, of the BW Offshore stock. Private companies may be related parties. Sometimes insiders have an interest in a public company through a holding in a private company, rather than in their own capacity as an individual. While it's hard to draw any broad stroke conclusions, it is worth noting as an area for further research.

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 1 warning sign we've spotted with BW Offshore .

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.