Great week for Lifco AB (publ) (STO:LIFCO B) insiders who have 51% stake and they haven’t stopped buying

Key Insights

• Insiders appear to have a vested interest in Lifco's growth, as seen by their sizeable ownership
• Carl Bennet owns 50% of the company
• Insiders have bought recently

If you want to know who really controls Lifco AB (publ) (STO:LIFCO B), 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 51% to be precise, is individual insiders. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Having purchased shares recently, insiders must be glad after market cap hit kr148b last week.

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

See our latest analysis for Lifco

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Lifco?

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 Lifco. 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 Lifco'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 Lifco. The company's largest shareholder is Carl Bennet, with ownership of 50%. This essentially means that they have extensive influence, if not outright control, over the future of the corporation. With 5.7% and 2.9% of the shares outstanding respectively, Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund (AP4) and SEB Investment Management AB are the second and third largest shareholders.

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. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of Lifco

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. 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.

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 most recent data indicates that insiders own the majority of Lifco AB (publ). This means they can collectively make decisions for the company. Given it has a market cap of kr148b, that means insiders have a whopping kr75b worth of shares in their own names. It is good to see this level of investment. You can check here to see if those insiders have been selling any of their shares.

General Public Ownership

With a 10% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Lifco. This size of ownership, while considerable, may not be enough to change company policy if the decision is not in sync with other large shareholders.

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. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Lifco you should know about.

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.