Great week for Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (NASDAQ:CLNE) institutional investors after losing 6.2% over the previous year

Key Insights

• Given the large stake in the stock by institutions, Clean Energy Fuels' stock price might be vulnerable to their trading decisions
• The top 9 shareholders own 51% of the company
• Insiders have been selling lately

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To get a sense of who is truly in control of Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (NASDAQ:CLNE), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are institutions with 48% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Institutional investors would probably welcome last week's 9.5% increase in the share price after a year of 6.2% losses as a sign that returns may to begin trending higher.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Clean Energy Fuels.

Check out our latest analysis for Clean Energy Fuels

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Clean Energy Fuels?

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 Clean Energy Fuels 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. 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 Clean Energy Fuels' earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Clean Energy Fuels. The company's largest shareholder is TotalEnergies SE, with ownership of 19%. With 7.2% and 5.3% of the shares outstanding respectively, BlackRock, Inc. and Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC are the second and third largest shareholders. In addition, we found that Andrew Littlefair, the CEO has 0.5% of the shares allocated to their name.

On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 9 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 are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of Clean Energy Fuels

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. 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.

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.

Shareholders would probably be interested to learn that insiders own shares in Clean Energy Fuels Corp.. In their own names, insiders own US$10m worth of stock in the US$629m 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-- including retail investors -- own 31% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. 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.

Public Company Ownership

It appears to us that public companies own 19% of Clean Energy Fuels. It's hard to say for sure but this suggests they have entwined business interests. This might be a strategic stake, so it's worth watching this space for changes in ownership.

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. For instance, we've identified 2 warning signs for Clean Energy Fuels that you should be aware of.

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

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.