Private companies are Cosmo Pharmaceuticals N.V.'s (VTX:COPN) biggest owners and were rewarded after market cap rose by CHF61m last week

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by private companies in Cosmo Pharmaceuticals indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• 51% of the business is held by the top 3 shareholders
• 16% of Cosmo Pharmaceuticals is held by Institutions

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To get a sense of who is truly in control of Cosmo Pharmaceuticals N.V. (VTX:COPN), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are private companies with 47% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

As a result, private companies were the biggest beneficiaries of last week’s 3.6% gain.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Cosmo Pharmaceuticals.

View our latest analysis for Cosmo Pharmaceuticals

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Cosmo Pharmaceuticals?

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.

We can see that Cosmo Pharmaceuticals 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 Cosmo Pharmaceuticals, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Cosmo Pharmaceuticals. The company's largest shareholder is Cassiopea SA, with ownership of 39%. Heinrich Herz AG is the second largest shareholder owning 8.5% of common stock, and dievini Hopp BioTech holding GmbH & Co. KG holds about 4.2% of the company stock.

To make our study more interesting, we found that the top 3 shareholders have a majority ownership in the company, meaning that they are powerful enough to influence the decisions of 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 Cosmo Pharmaceuticals

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. 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.

Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

Our data cannot confirm that board members are holding shares personally. Given we are not picking up on insider ownership, we may have missing data. Therefore, it would be interesting to assess the CEO compensation and tenure, here.

General Public Ownership

With a 36% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Cosmo Pharmaceuticals. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Private Company Ownership

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 47%, of the company's shares. It's hard to draw any conclusions from this fact alone, so its worth looking into who owns those private companies. Sometimes insiders or other related parties have an interest in shares in a public company through a separate private company.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for Cosmo Pharmaceuticals that you should be aware of.

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.