Axfood AB (publ)'s (STO:AXFO) largest shareholders are private companies who were rewarded as market cap surged kr1.9b last week

Key Insights

• Axfood's significant private companies ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• 53% of the business is held by the top 2 shareholders
• Insiders have been buying lately

A look at the shareholders of Axfood AB (publ) (STO:AXFO) can tell us which group is most powerful. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 49% to be precise, is private companies. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

As a result, private companies collectively scored the highest last week as the company hit kr50b market cap following a 3.8% gain in the stock.

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

See our latest analysis for Axfood

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Axfood?

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.

We can see that Axfood 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. 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 Axfood's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Axfood is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Axel Johnson AB with 49% of shares outstanding. With 4.2% and 3.2% of the shares outstanding respectively, Swedbank Robur Fonder AB and Handelsbanken Asset Management are the second and third largest shareholders.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 2 shareholders collectively control more than half of the company's shares, implying that they have considerable power to influence the company's decisions.

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 Axfood

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. 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.

We can report that insiders do own shares in Axfood AB (publ). It is a pretty big company, so it is generally a positive to see some potentially meaningful alignment. In this case, they own around kr1.3b worth of shares (at current prices). Most would say this shows alignment of interests between shareholders and the board. Still, it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 25% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. 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.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 49%, of the Axfood stock. It's hard to draw any conclusions from this fact alone, so its worth looking into who owns those private companies. Sometimes insiders or other related parties have an interest in shares in a public company through a separate private company.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Axfood better, we need to consider many other factors.

I like to dive deeper into how a company has performed in the past. You can find historic revenue and earnings in this detailed graph.

But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter 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.