Insiders with their considerable ownership were the key benefactors as Clas Ohlson AB (publ) (STO:CLAS B) touches kr15b market cap

Key Insights

• Insiders appear to have a vested interest in Clas Ohlson's growth, as seen by their sizeable ownership
• 50% of the business is held by the top 6 shareholders
• 31% of Clas Ohlson is held by Institutions

If you want to know who really controls Clas Ohlson AB (publ) (STO:CLAS B), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 43% to be precise, is individual insiders. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

As a result, insiders scored the highest last week as the company hit kr15b market cap following a 4.0% gain in the stock.

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

Check out our latest analysis for Clas Ohlson

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Clas Ohlson?

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

Clas Ohlson is not owned by hedge funds. The company's largest shareholder is Helena Tidstrand, with ownership of 12%. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 11% and 9.1%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.

On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 6 shareholders, suggesting that the interests of the larger shareholders are balanced out to an extent by the smaller ones.

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 is a little analyst coverage of the stock, but not much. So there is room for it to gain more coverage.

Insider Ownership Of Clas Ohlson

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. 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.

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.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of Clas Ohlson AB (publ). Insiders own kr6.5b worth of shares in the kr15b company. That's quite meaningful. It is good to see this level of investment. You can check here to see if those insiders have been buying recently.

General Public Ownership

With a 26% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Clas Ohlson. 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.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Clas Ohlson better, we need to consider many other factors. Be aware that Clas Ohlson is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis , you should know about...

If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.

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.