Selvita S.A.'s (WSE:SLV) large institutional owners must be happy as stock continues to impress, up 15% over the past week

If you want to know who really controls Selvita S.A. (WSE:SLV), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. We can see that institutions own the lion's share in the company with 38% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Last week’s 15% gain means that institutional investors were on the positive end of the spectrum even as the company has shown strong longer-term trends. One-year return to shareholders is currently 11% and last week’s gain was the icing on the cake.

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

See our latest analysis for Selvita

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Selvita?

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 Selvita does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This implies the analysts working for those institutions have looked at the stock and they like it. But just like anyone else, they could be wrong. 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 Selvita'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 Selvita. Pawel Przewiezlikowski is currently the company's largest shareholder with 21% of shares outstanding. NN Investment Partners International Holdings B.V. is the second largest shareholder owning 10% of common stock, and Aviva Investors Poland Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych S.A. holds about 6.2% of the company stock. Additionally, the company's CEO Boguslaw Sieczkowski directly holds 5.1% of the total shares outstanding.

We also observed that the top 6 shareholders account for more than half of the share register, with a few smaller shareholders to balance the interests of the larger ones to a certain extent.

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 Selvita

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. 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.

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.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of Selvita S.A.. Insiders own zł407m worth of shares in the zł1.4b company. This may suggest that the founders still own a lot of shares. You can click here to see if they 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.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Selvita better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for Selvita that you should be aware of.

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.