Both retail investors who control a good portion of Vend Marketplaces ASA (OB:VEND) along with institutions must be dismayed after last week's 4.5% decrease

Key Insights

• Significant control over Vend Marketplaces by retail investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• A total of 25 investors have a majority stake in the company with 39% ownership
• Recent sales by insiders

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To get a sense of who is truly in control of Vend Marketplaces ASA (OB:VEND), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are retail investors with 59% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

Following a 4.5% decrease in the stock price last week, retail investors suffered the most losses, but institutions who own 28% stock also took a hit.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Vend Marketplaces, beginning with the chart below.

View our latest analysis for Vend Marketplaces

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Vend Marketplaces?

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 Vend Marketplaces. 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 Vend Marketplaces' historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Vend Marketplaces is not owned by hedge funds. The Tinius Trust is currently the largest shareholder, with 5.7% of shares outstanding. With 5.3% and 3.2% of the shares outstanding respectively, Folketrygdfondet and DNB Asset Management AS are the second and third largest shareholders.

Our studies suggest that the top 25 shareholders collectively control less than half of the company's shares, meaning that the company's shares are widely disseminated and there is no dominant shareholder.

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 Vend Marketplaces

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.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own less than 1% of Vend Marketplaces ASA. But they may have an indirect interest through a corporate structure that we haven't picked up on. It's a big company, so even a small proportional interest can create alignment between the board and shareholders. In this case insiders own kr7.1m worth of shares. Arguably, recent buying and selling is just as important to consider. You can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, collectively holds 59% of Vend Marketplaces shares. This level of ownership gives investors from the wider public some power to sway key policy decisions such as board composition, executive compensation, and the dividend payout ratio.

Private Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 5.7%, of the shares on issue. 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 Vend Marketplaces better, we need to consider many other factors. To that end, you should be aware of the 2 warning signs we've spotted with Vend Marketplaces .

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.