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The considerable ownership by private companies in Knorr-Bremse indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
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Stella VermÖGensverwaltungs- GmbH owns 59% of the company
A look at the shareholders of Knorr-Bremse AG (ETR:KBX) can tell us which group is most powerful. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are private companies with 59% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).
Institutions, on the other hand, account for 24% of the company’s stockholders. Large companies usually have institutions as shareholders, and we usually see insiders owning shares in smaller companies.
In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Knorr-Bremse.
View our latest analysis for Knorr-Bremse
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 Knorr-Bremse does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company’s stock. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. 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 Knorr-Bremse’s earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.
Hedge funds don’t have many shares in Knorr-Bremse. Stella VermÖGensverwaltungs- GmbH is currently the largest shareholder, with 59% of shares outstanding. This implies that they have majority interest control of the future of the company. BlackRock, Inc. is the second largest shareholder owning 3.1% of common stock, and Norges Bank Investment Management holds about 3.0% of the company stock.
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.
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.
I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.
Our data cannot confirm that board members are holding shares personally. Given we are not picking up on insider ownership, we may have missing data. Therefore, it would be interesting to assess the CEO compensation and tenure, here.
The general public– including retail investors — own 17% stake in the company, and hence can’t easily be ignored. While this group can’t necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.
We can see that Private Companies own 59%, of the shares on issue. It’s hard to draw any conclusions from this fact alone, so its worth looking into who owns those private companies. Sometimes insiders or other related parties have an interest in shares in a public company through a separate private company.
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. Be aware that Knorr-Bremse is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis , you should know about…
If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its 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.