Institutional owners may ignore uniQure N.V.'s (NASDAQ:QURE) recent US$190m market cap decline as longer-term profits stay in the green

Key Insights

• Institutions' substantial holdings in uniQure implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price
• 51% of the business is held by the top 16 shareholders
• Insiders have been selling lately

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To get a sense of who is truly in control of uniQure N.V. (NASDAQ:QURE), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. We can see that institutions own the lion's share in the company with 65% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Losing money on investments is something no shareholder enjoys, least of all institutional investors who saw their holdings value drop by 28% last week. However, the 74% one-year return to shareholders might have softened the blow. But they would probably be wary of future losses.

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

See our latest analysis for uniQure

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About uniQure?

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.

We can see that uniQure 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 uniQure's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Investors should note that institutions actually own more than half the company, so they can collectively wield significant power. It looks like hedge funds own 12% of uniQure shares. That catches my attention because hedge funds sometimes try to influence management, or bring about changes that will create near term value for shareholders. The company's largest shareholder is EcoR1 Capital, LLC, with ownership of 6.3%. With 5.6% and 4.5% of the shares outstanding respectively, Vestal Point Capital, LP and Nantahala Capital Management, LLC are the second and third largest shareholders. Additionally, the company's CEO Matthew Kapusta directly holds 0.8% of the total shares outstanding.

Looking at the shareholder registry, we can see that 51% of the ownership is controlled by the top 16 shareholders, meaning that no single shareholder has a majority interest in the ownership.

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

Insider Ownership Of uniQure

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. 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 uniQure N.V.. It has a market capitalization of just US$485m, and insiders have US$8.7m 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 16% stake in uniQure. 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 4.4% of uniQure. We can't be certain but it is quite possible this is a strategic stake. The businesses may be similar, or work together.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. To that end, you should learn about the 4 warning signs we've spotted with uniQure (including 1 which is significant) .

If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts .

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.