A fantastic week for Surgical Science Sweden AB (publ)'s (STO:SUS) 53% institutional owners, one-year returns continue to impress

Key Insights

• Significantly high institutional ownership implies Surgical Science Sweden's stock price is sensitive to their trading actions
• The top 6 shareholders own 51% of the company
• 27% of Surgical Science Sweden is held by insiders

Every investor in Surgical Science Sweden AB (publ) (STO:SUS) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are institutions with 53% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

And last week, institutional investors ended up benefitting the most after the company hit kr9.0b in market cap. The one-year return on investment is currently 1.1% and last week's gain would have been more than welcomed.

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

View our latest analysis for Surgical Science Sweden

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Surgical Science Sweden?

Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Surgical Science Sweden. 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. 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 Surgical Science Sweden's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

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 Surgical Science Sweden. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Jan Bengtsson with 14% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 12% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 6.7% by the third-largest shareholder.

We did some more digging and found that 6 of the top shareholders account for roughly 51% of the register, implying that along with larger shareholders, there are a few smaller shareholders, thereby balancing out each others interests somewhat.

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

Insider Ownership Of Surgical Science Sweden

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.

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

Our information suggests that insiders maintain a significant holding in Surgical Science Sweden AB (publ). Insiders own kr2.4b worth of shares in the kr9.0b company. It is great to see insiders so invested in the business. It might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying recently.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 20% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important.

Many find it useful to take an in depth look at how a company has performed in the past. You can access this detailed graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

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.