Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (publ) (STO:SOBI) is favoured by institutional owners who hold 48% of the company

Key Insights

• Significantly high institutional ownership implies Swedish Orphan Biovitrum's stock price is sensitive to their trading actions
• A total of 3 investors have a majority stake in the company with 52% ownership
• Insiders have been selling lately

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Every investor in Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (publ) (STO:SOBI) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. With 48% stake, institutions possess the maximum shares in the company. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Given the vast amount of money and research capacities at their disposal, institutional ownership tends to carry a lot of weight, especially with individual investors. Hence, having a considerable amount of institutional money invested in a company is often regarded as a desirable trait.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Swedish Orphan Biovitrum.

View our latest analysis for Swedish Orphan Biovitrum

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Swedish Orphan Biovitrum?

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.

We can see that Swedish Orphan Biovitrum does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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 Swedish Orphan Biovitrum's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Swedish Orphan Biovitrum. Investor AB (publ) is currently the largest shareholder, with 36% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 10% and 6.0% of the stock.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 3 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 Swedish Orphan Biovitrum

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. 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 data suggests that insiders own under 1% of Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (publ) in their own names. As it is a large company, we'd only expect insiders to own a small percentage of it. But it's worth noting that they own kr298m worth of shares. It is always good to see at least some insider ownership, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 16% 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.

Private Equity Ownership

With a stake of 36%, private equity firms could influence the Swedish Orphan Biovitrum board. Some might like this, because private equity are sometimes activists who hold management accountable. But other times, private equity is selling out, having taking the company public.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. For example, we've discovered 1 warning sign for Swedish Orphan Biovitrum that you should be aware of before investing here.

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.