Yahoo Finance While insiders own 35% of Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft (ETR:BMW), individual investors are its largest shareholders with 36% ownership
If you want to know who really controls Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft (ETR:BMW), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. We can see that individual investors own the lion's share in the company with 36% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).
Meanwhile, individual insiders make up 35% of the company’s shareholders. Institutions will often hold stock in bigger companies, and we expect to see insiders owning a noticeable percentage of the smaller ones.
Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Bayerische Motoren Werke.
Check out our latest analysis for Bayerische Motoren Werke
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Bayerische Motoren Werke?
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.
Bayerische Motoren Werke already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see Bayerische Motoren Werke's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.
Bayerische Motoren Werke is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Susanne Klatten with 19% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 16% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 8.4% by the third-largest shareholder.
On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 8 shareholders, suggesting that the interests of the larger shareholders are balanced out to an extent by the smaller ones.
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 plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.
Insider Ownership Of Bayerische Motoren Werke
While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. 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.
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.
It seems insiders own a significant proportion of Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft. It has a market capitalization of just €54b, and insiders have €19b worth of shares in their own names. That's quite significant. Most would be pleased to see the board is investing alongside them. You may wish to access this free chart showing recent trading by insiders.
General Public Ownership
The general public-- including retail investors -- own 36% 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.
Next Steps:
It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Bayerische Motoren Werke better, we need to consider many other factors. Be aware that Bayerische Motoren Werke is showing 4 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 2 of those are potentially serious...
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.
Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.
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.
Join A Paid User Research Session
You’ll receive a US$30 Amazon Gift card for 1 hour of your time while helping us build better investing tools for the individual investors like yourself. Sign up here
