A great week that adds to VEF AB (publ)'s (STO:VEFAB) one-year returns, institutional investors who own 49% must be happy

Key Insights

• Significantly high institutional ownership implies VEF's stock price is sensitive to their trading actions
• The top 5 shareholders own 55% of the company
• Insiders own 11% of VEF

A look at the shareholders of VEF AB (publ) (STO:VEFAB) can tell us which group is most powerful. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are institutions with 49% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

And as as result, institutional investors reaped the most rewards after the company's stock price gained 15% last week. The one-year return on investment is currently 8.6% and last week's gain would have been more than welcomed.

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

View our latest analysis for VEF

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About VEF?

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 VEF does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at VEF's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

It would appear that 27% of VEF shares are controlled by hedge funds. That worth noting, since hedge funds are often quite active investors, who may try to influence management. Many want to see value creation (and a higher share price) in the short term or medium term. The company's largest shareholder is Conifer Management, LLC, with ownership of 21%. With 9.1% and 8.8% of the shares outstanding respectively, FMR LLC and Swedbank Robur Fonder AB are the second and third largest shareholders. Additionally, the company's CEO David Nangle directly holds 1.9% of the total shares outstanding.

Our research also brought to light the fact that roughly 55% of the company is controlled by the top 5 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. There is some analyst coverage of the stock, but it could still become more well known, with time.

Insider Ownership Of VEF

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of VEF AB (publ). It has a market capitalization of just kr2.3b, and insiders have kr260m worth of shares in their own names. 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 13% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Be aware that VEF is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis , you should know about...

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.