The recent pullback must have dismayed NOTE AB (publ) (STO:NOTE) insiders who own 36% of the company

Key Insights

• Insiders appear to have a vested interest in NOTE's growth, as seen by their sizeable ownership
• A total of 8 investors have a majority stake in the company with 52% ownership
• Institutions own 28% of NOTE

To get a sense of who is truly in control of NOTE AB (publ) (STO:NOTE), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. With 36% stake, individual insiders possess the maximum shares in the company. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

As market cap fell to kr3.7b last week, insiders would have faced the highest losses than any other shareholder groups of the company.

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

See our latest analysis for NOTE

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About NOTE?

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 NOTE 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. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of NOTE, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in NOTE. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Johan Hagberg with 21% of shares outstanding. Vevlen Gård AS is the second largest shareholder owning 5.5% of common stock, and Egil Dahl holds about 5.4% of the company stock. Egil Dahl, who is the third-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Member of the Board of Directors. Additionally, the company's CEO Johannes Lind-Widestam directly holds 1.4% of the total shares outstanding.

On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 8 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. Our information suggests that there isn't any analyst coverage of the stock, so it is probably little known.

Insider Ownership Of NOTE

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

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.

Our information suggests that insiders maintain a significant holding in NOTE AB (publ). Insiders own kr1.3b worth of shares in the kr3.7b company. We would say this shows alignment with shareholders, but it is worth noting that the company is still quite small; some insiders may have founded the business. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

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

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 10%, of the company's shares. 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:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand NOTE better, we need to consider many other factors.

I like to dive deeper into how a company has performed in the past. You can access this interactive graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow, for free.

If you would prefer check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, backed by strong financial data.

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.