Yahoo Finance Here's What West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd.'s (TSE:WFG) Shareholder Ownership Structure Looks Like
The big shareholder groups in West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. (TSE:WFG) have power over the company. Large companies usually have institutions as shareholders, and we usually see insiders owning shares in smaller companies. Companies that used to be publicly owned tend to have lower insider ownership.
West Fraser Timber is a pretty big company. It has a market capitalization of CA$13b. Normally institutions would own a significant portion of a company this size. In the chart below, we can see that institutions own shares in the company. Let's delve deeper into each type of owner, to discover more about West Fraser Timber.
View our latest analysis for West Fraser Timber
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About West Fraser Timber?
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.
We can see that West Fraser Timber 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. 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 West Fraser Timber, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.
Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences. We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in West Fraser Timber. The Jim Pattison Group, Inc. is currently the largest shareholder, with 8.3% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 6.2% and 4.8% of the stock.
After doing some more digging, we found that the top 19 have the combined ownership of 51% in the company, suggesting that no single shareholder has significant control over the company.
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 West Fraser Timber
While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.
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 West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd.. It is a very large company, and board members collectively own CA$173m worth of shares (at current prices). It is good to see this level of investment. You can check here to see if those insiders have been buying recently.
General Public Ownership
With a 20% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over West Fraser Timber. 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 Company Ownership
It seems that Private Companies own 19%, of the West Fraser Timber stock. Private companies may be related parties. Sometimes insiders have an interest in a public company through a holding in a private company, rather than in their own capacity as an individual. While it's hard to draw any broad stroke conclusions, it is worth noting as an area for further research.
Next Steps:
It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand West Fraser Timber better, we need to consider many other factors. Case in point: We've spotted 3 warning signs for West Fraser Timber you should be aware of, and 2 of them can't be ignored.
But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter 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.
