Insiders of Wallenstam AB (publ) (STO:WALL B) have had a great week after last week's kr1.4b gain and they haven't stopped buying

Key Insights

• Significant insider control over Wallenstam implies vested interests in company growth
• A total of 10 investors have a majority stake in the company with 50% ownership
• Insiders have been buying lately

Every investor in Wallenstam AB (publ) (STO:WALL B) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are individual insiders with 35% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Having purchased shares recently, insiders must be glad after market cap hit kr34b last week.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Wallenstam.

See our latest analysis for Wallenstam

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Wallenstam?

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 Wallenstam 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 Wallenstam's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Wallenstam. The company's CEO Hans Wallenstam is the largest shareholder with 14% of shares outstanding. AMF Fonder AB is the second largest shareholder owning 13% of common stock, and Henric Wiman holds about 3.7% of the company stock.

We also observed that the top 10 shareholders account for more than half of the share register, with a few smaller shareholders to balance the interests of the larger ones to a certain extent.

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 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 Wallenstam

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. The company management answer to the board and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board themselves.

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 most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of Wallenstam AB (publ). It is very interesting to see that insiders have a meaningful kr12b stake in this kr34b business. Most would be pleased to see the board is investing alongside them. You may wish to access this free chart showing recent trading by insiders.

General Public Ownership

With a 28% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Wallenstam. 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.

Private Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 12%, of the shares on issue. 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:

I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. To that end, you should be aware of the 1 warning sign we've spotted with Wallenstam .

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.