The Manitowoc Company, Inc. (NYSE:MTW) institutional owners may be pleased with recent gains after 34% loss over the past year

Key Insights

• Given the large stake in the stock by institutions, Manitowoc Company's stock price might be vulnerable to their trading decisions
• 50% of the business is held by the top 12 shareholders
• Recent purchases by insiders

If you want to know who really controls The Manitowoc Company, Inc. (NYSE:MTW), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are institutions with 80% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

After a year of 34% losses, last week’s 10% gain would be welcomed by institutional investors as a possible sign that returns might start trending higher.

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

Check out our latest analysis for Manitowoc Company

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Manitowoc Company?

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

Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences. We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Manitowoc Company. BlackRock, Inc. is currently the company's largest shareholder with 13% of shares outstanding. With 8.0% and 6.6% of the shares outstanding respectively, Front Street Capital Management, Inc. and The Vanguard Group, Inc. are the second and third largest shareholders. In addition, we found that Aaron Ravenscroft, the CEO has 0.7% of the shares allocated to their name.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 12 have the combined ownership of 50% in the company, suggesting that no single shareholder has significant control over the company.

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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Manitowoc Company

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 most recent data indicates that insiders own some shares in The Manitowoc Company, Inc.. As individuals, the insiders collectively own US$9.2m worth of the US$338m company. This shows at least some alignment. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 17% stake in Manitowoc Company. 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.

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. Take risks for example - Manitowoc Company has 2 warning signs (and 1 which can't be ignored) we think you should know about.

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.