TAURON Polska Energia S.A.'s (WSE:TPE) last week's 5.5% decline must have disappointed individual investors who have a significant stake

Key Insights

• TAURON Polska Energia's significant individual investors ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• 50% of the business is held by the top 4 shareholders
• Institutional ownership in TAURON Polska Energia is 26%

If you want to know who really controls TAURON Polska Energia S.A. (WSE:TPE), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are individual investors with 33% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

And last week, individual investors endured the biggest losses as the stock fell by 5.5%.

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

View our latest analysis for TAURON Polska Energia

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About TAURON Polska Energia?

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 TAURON Polska Energia. 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. 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 TAURON Polska Energia's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in TAURON Polska Energia. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Ministry of State Treasury with 30% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 10% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 5.1% by the third-largest shareholder.

Our research also brought to light the fact that roughly 50% of the company is controlled by the top 4 shareholders suggesting that these owners wield significant influence on the business.

Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of TAURON Polska Energia

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 information suggests that TAURON Polska Energia S.A. insiders own under 1% of the company. 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 zł29k worth of shares (at current prices). It is good to see board members owning shares, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.

General Public Ownership

With a 33% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over TAURON Polska Energia. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Public Company Ownership

It appears to us that public companies own 10% of TAURON Polska Energia. This may be a strategic interest and the two companies may have related business interests. It could be that they have de-merged. This holding is probably worth investigating further.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand TAURON Polska Energia better, we need to consider many other factors. To that end, you should be aware of the 1 warning sign we've spotted with TAURON Polska Energia .

If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its 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.