Both private companies who control a good portion of Elanders AB (publ) (STO:ELAN B) along with institutions must be dismayed after last week's 13% decrease

Key Insights

• Elanders' significant private companies ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• The largest shareholder of the company is Carl Bennet AB with a 50% stake
• Insiders have bought recently

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A look at the shareholders of Elanders AB (publ) (STO:ELAN B) can tell us which group is most powerful. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are private companies with 51% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

While institutions, who own 36% shares weren’t spared from last week’s kr286m market cap drop, private companies as a group suffered the maximum losses

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Elanders.

See our latest analysis for Elanders

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Elanders?

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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Elanders. 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. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see Elanders' historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Elanders is not owned by hedge funds. The company's largest shareholder is Carl Bennet AB, with ownership of 50%. This implies that they have majority interest control of the future of the company. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 12% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 8.6% by the third-largest shareholder.

While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Elanders

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.

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 less than 1% of Elanders AB (publ). However, it's possible that insiders might have an indirect interest through a more complex structure. It has a market capitalization of just kr2.0b, and the board has only kr11m worth of shares in their own names. Many tend to prefer to see a board with bigger shareholdings. A good next step might be to take a look at this free summary of insider buying and selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 13% stake in Elanders. 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.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 51%, of the Elanders stock. It might be worth looking deeper into this. If related parties, such as insiders, have an interest in one of these private companies, that should be disclosed in the annual report. Private companies may also have a strategic interest in the company.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Elanders better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 4 warning signs for Elanders (1 is a bit concerning!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

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.