Following a 0.3% decline over last year, recent gains may please Trinity Industries, Inc. (NYSE:TRN) institutional owners

Key Insights

• Given the large stake in the stock by institutions, Trinity Industries' stock price might be vulnerable to their trading decisions
• The top 4 shareholders own 50% of the company
• Using data from analyst forecasts alongside ownership research, one can better assess the future performance of a company

If you want to know who really controls Trinity Industries, Inc. (NYSE:TRN), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. With 86% stake, institutions possess the maximum shares in the company. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Institutional investors would appreciate the 3.7% increase in share prices last week, given their one-year returns have been disappointing at 0.3%.

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

See our latest analysis for Trinity Industries

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Trinity Industries?

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.

Trinity Industries already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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 Trinity Industries' historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. Trinity Industries is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is BlackRock, Inc. with 17% of shares outstanding. With 14% and 12% of the shares outstanding respectively, Capital Research and Management Company and The Vanguard Group, Inc. are the second and third largest shareholders.

Our research also brought to light the fact that roughly 50% of the company is controlled by the top 4 shareholders suggesting that these owners wield significant influence on the business.

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 Trinity Industries

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. 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.

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.

We can report that insiders do own shares in Trinity Industries, Inc.. The insiders have a meaningful stake worth US$23m. Most would see this as a real positive. If you would like to explore the question of insider alignment, you can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

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

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Trinity Industries better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 3 warning signs for Trinity Industries (2 don't sit too well with us!) 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.