state or government who own 50% along with institutions invested in Orlen S.A. (WSE:PKN) saw increase in their holdings value last week

Key Insights

• Orlen's significant state or government ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• 56% of the business is held by the top 2 shareholders
• 34% of Orlen is held by Institutions

If you want to know who really controls Orlen S.A. (WSE:PKN), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. With 50% stake, state or government possess the maximum shares in the company. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

While state or government were the group that benefitted the most from last week’s zł2.6b market cap gain, institutions too had a 34% share in those profits.

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

See our latest analysis for Orlen

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Orlen?

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 Orlen 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 Orlen's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Orlen is not owned by hedge funds. Ministry of State Treasury is currently the company's largest shareholder with 50% of shares outstanding. With 5.8% and 5.1% of the shares outstanding respectively, Nationale-Nederlanden Powszechne Towarzystwo Emerytalne S.A. and Allianz Asset Management GmbH are the second and third largest shareholders.

To make our study more interesting, we found that the top 2 shareholders have a majority ownership in the company, meaning that they are powerful enough to influence the decisions of the company.

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

Insider Ownership Of Orlen

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

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 Orlen S.A. in their own names. Being so large, we would not expect insiders to own a large proportion of the stock. Collectively, they own zł63k of stock. 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

With a 16% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Orlen. 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.

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. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 4 warning signs for Orlen (of which 1 doesn't sit too well with us!) 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.

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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.

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