Yahoo Finance Positive week for Criteo S.A. (NASDAQ:CRTO) institutional investors who lost 37% over the past year
A look at the shareholders of Criteo S.A. (NASDAQ:CRTO) can tell us which group is most powerful. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are institutions with 84% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).
Institutional investors would probably welcome last week's 9.7% increase in share prices after a year of 37% losses as a sign that returns are likely to begin trending higher.
In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Criteo.
View our latest analysis for Criteo
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Criteo?
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.
Criteo already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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 Criteo's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.
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 Criteo. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is AllianceBernstein L.P. with 11% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 8.9% and 8.6%, of the shares outstanding, respectively. In addition, we found that Megan Clarken, the CEO has 0.7% of the shares allocated to their name.
We did some more digging and found that 9 of the top shareholders account for roughly 53% of the register, implying that along with larger shareholders, there are a few smaller shareholders, thereby balancing out each others interests somewhat.
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 Criteo
The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. 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.
We can see that insiders own shares in Criteo S.A.. It is a pretty big company, so it is generally a positive to see some potentially meaningful alignment. In this case, they own around US$28m worth of shares (at current prices). If you would like to explore the question of insider alignment, you can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.
General Public Ownership
The general public-- including retail investors -- own 14% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. 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:
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. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for Criteo you should know about.
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.
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