Institutional investors in DOF Group ASA (OB:DOFG) see kr727m decrease in market cap last week, although long-term gains have benefitted them.

Key Insights

• Given the large stake in the stock by institutions, DOF Group's stock price might be vulnerable to their trading decisions
• The top 6 shareholders own 53% of the company
• Insider ownership in DOF Group is 12%

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If you want to know who really controls DOF Group ASA (OB:DOFG), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 62% to be precise, is institutions. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Losing money on investments is something no shareholder enjoys, least of all institutional investors who saw their holdings value drop by 3.1% last week. However, the 28% one-year returns may have helped alleviate their overall losses. But they would probably be wary of future losses.

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

View our latest analysis for DOF Group

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About DOF Group?

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 DOF Group does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of DOF Group, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. DOF Group is not owned by hedge funds. The company's largest shareholder is A.P. Møller Holding A/S, with ownership of 25%. John Fredriksen is the second largest shareholder owning 10% of common stock, and BNY Asset Management holds about 6.0% of the company stock.

We did some more digging and found that 6 of the top shareholders account for roughly 53% of the register, implying that along with larger shareholders, there are a few smaller shareholders, thereby balancing out each others interests somewhat.

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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of DOF 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. 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.

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 most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of DOF Group ASA. It has a market capitalization of just kr22b, and insiders have kr2.6b worth of shares in their own names. That's quite significant. It is good to see this level of investment. You can check here to see if those insiders have been buying recently.

General Public Ownership

With a 15% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over DOF 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.

Public Company Ownership

We can see that public companies hold 3.1% of the DOF Group shares on issue. We can't be certain but it is quite possible this is a strategic stake. The businesses may be similar, or work together.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand DOF Group better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 3 warning signs for DOF Group that you should be aware of.

But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter 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.