1stdibs.Com, Inc. (NASDAQ:DIBS) institutional owners may be pleased with recent gains after 41% loss over the past year

Key Insights

• Significantly high institutional ownership implies 1stdibs.Com's stock price is sensitive to their trading actions
• The top 6 shareholders own 51% of the company
• Insiders have been selling lately

To get a sense of who is truly in control of 1stdibs.Com, Inc. (NASDAQ:DIBS), 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 33% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Last week's US$13m market cap gain would probably be appreciated by institutional investors, especially after a year of 41% losses.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of 1stdibs.Com.

See our latest analysis for 1stdibs.Com

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About 1stdibs.Com?

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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in 1stdibs.Com. 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 1stdibs.Com's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

It looks like hedge funds own 5.2% of 1stdibs.Com shares. That's interesting, because hedge funds can be quite active and activist. Many look for medium term catalysts that will drive the share price higher. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Benchmark with 19% of shares outstanding. With 13% and 5.6% of the shares outstanding respectively, Insight Venture Management, LLC and David Rosenblatt are the second and third largest shareholders. David Rosenblatt, who is the third-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Chairman of the Board.

On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 6 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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of 1stdibs.Com

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.

Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

We can see that insiders own shares in 1stdibs.Com, Inc.. It has a market capitalization of just US$161m, and insiders have US$12m worth of shares, in their own names. This shows at least some alignment, but we usually like to see larger insider holdings. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 22% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over 1stdibs.Com. 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.

Private Equity Ownership

With an ownership of 32%, private equity firms are in a position to play a role in shaping corporate strategy with a focus on value creation. Some might like this, because private equity are sometimes activists who hold management accountable. But other times, private equity is selling out, having taking the company public.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand 1stdibs.Com better, we need to consider many other factors. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for 1stdibs.Com you should know about.

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.