Institutional owners may take dramatic actions as Calavo Growers, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:CVGW) recent 15% drop adds to one-year losses

Key Insights

• Significantly high institutional ownership implies Calavo Growers' stock price is sensitive to their trading actions
• 51% of the business is held by the top 14 shareholders
• Insiders have bought recently

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Every investor in Calavo Growers, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGW) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 75% to be precise, is institutions. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

And so it follows that institutional investors was the group most impacted after the company's market cap fell to US$494m last week after a 15% drop in the share price. Needless to say, the recent loss which further adds to the one-year loss to shareholders of 12% might not go down well especially with this category of shareholders. Also referred to as "smart money", institutions have a lot of sway over how a stock's price moves. As a result, if the decline continues, institutional investors may be pressured to sell Calavo Growers which might hurt individual investors.

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

View our latest analysis for Calavo Growers

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Calavo Growers?

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 Calavo Growers 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. 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 Calavo Growers, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. Hedge funds don't have many shares in Calavo Growers. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Nuance Investments, LLC with 9.9% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 8.0% and 6.5%, of the shares outstanding, respectively. Furthermore, CEO Lecil Cole is the owner of 3.4% of the company's shares.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 14 have the combined ownership of 51% in the company, suggesting that no single shareholder has significant control over the company.

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 Calavo Growers

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. 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.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own some shares in Calavo Growers, Inc.. It has a market capitalization of just US$494m, and insiders have US$33m worth of shares, in their own names. 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 18% stake in Calavo Growers. 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 Calavo Growers better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for Calavo Growers 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.