To get a sense of who is truly in control of Bleecker Société Anonyme (EPA:BLEE), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. With 70% stake, individual insiders possess the maximum shares in the company. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).
As market cap fell to €106m last week, insiders would have faced the highest losses than any other shareholder groups of the company.
In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Bleecker Société Anonyme.
Check out our latest analysis for Bleecker Société Anonyme
Institutional investors often avoid companies that are too small, too illiquid or too risky for their tastes. But it's unusual to see larger companies without any institutional investors.
There could be various reasons why no institutions own shares in a company. Typically, small, newly listed companies don't attract much attention from fund managers, because it would not be possible for large fund managers to build a meaningful position in the company. Alternatively, there might be something about the company that has kept institutional investors away. Bleecker Société Anonyme's earnings and revenue track record (below) may not be compelling to institutional investors -- or they simply might not have looked at the business closely.
We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Bleecker Société Anonyme. From our data, we infer that the largest shareholder is Muriel Marcilhacy-Giraud (who also holds the title of Chairman of Management Board) with 19% of shares outstanding. Its usually considered a good sign when insiders own a significant number of shares in the company, and in this case, we're glad to see a company insider play the role of a key stakeholder. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 19% and 17%, of the shares outstanding, respectively. Interestingly, the second-largest shareholder, Philippe Bucheton is also Chief Executive Officer, again, pointing towards strong insider ownership amongst the company's top shareholders.
After doing some more digging, we found that the top 3 shareholders collectively control more than half of the company's shares, implying that they have considerable power to influence the company's decisions.
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. We're not picking up on any analyst coverage of the stock at the moment, so the company is unlikely to be widely held.
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.
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 most recent data indicates that insiders own the majority of Bleecker Société Anonyme. This means they can collectively make decisions for the company. Given it has a market cap of €106m, that means they have €74m worth of shares. Most would argue this is a positive, showing strong alignment with shareholders. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.
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.
It seems that Private Companies own 16%, of the Bleecker Société Anonyme 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.
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. To that end, you should learn about the 3 warning signs we've spotted with Bleecker Société Anonyme (including 2 which can't be ignored) .
Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies.
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.