AB Volvo (publ)'s (STO:VOLV B) large institutional owners must be happy as stock continues to impress, up 3.2% over the past week

Key Insights

• Institutions' substantial holdings in AB Volvo implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price
• 50% of the business is held by the top 24 shareholders
• Recent purchases by insiders

If you want to know who really controls AB Volvo (publ) (STO:VOLV B), 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 institutions with 54% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Last week’s 3.2% gain means that institutional investors were on the positive end of the spectrum even as the company has shown strong longer-term trends. The gains from last week would have further boosted the one-year return to shareholders which currently stand at 24%.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about AB Volvo.

View our latest analysis for AB Volvo

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About AB Volvo?

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 AB Volvo. 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. 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 AB Volvo, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences. Hedge funds don't have many shares in AB Volvo. Our data shows that AB Industrivärden (publ) is the largest shareholder with 9.3% of shares outstanding. Swedbank Robur Fonder AB is the second largest shareholder owning 4.4% of common stock, and Li Shufu holds about 4.4% of the company stock.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 24 have the combined ownership of 50% in the company, suggesting that no single shareholder has significant control over 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. There are a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future.

Insider Ownership Of AB Volvo

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.

Shareholders would probably be interested to learn that insiders own shares in AB Volvo (publ). Insiders own kr27b worth of shares (at current prices). 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

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 41% stake in AB Volvo. 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 AB Volvo better, we need to consider many other factors. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for AB Volvo (of which 1 doesn't sit too well with us!) 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.