Key Insights

• Significantly high institutional ownership implies Veeva Systems' stock price is sensitive to their trading actions
• The top 19 shareholders own 51% of the company
• Using data from analyst forecasts alongside ownership research, one can better assess the future performance of a company

If you want to know who really controls Veeva Systems Inc. (NYSE:VEEV), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are institutions with 81% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

And things are looking up for institutional investors after the company gained US$2.3b in market cap last week. One-year return to shareholders is currently 16% and last week’s gain was the icing on the cake.

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

Check out our latest analysis for Veeva Systems

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Veeva Systems?

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 Veeva Systems does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. 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 Veeva Systems, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Investors should note that institutions actually own more than half the company, so they can collectively wield significant power. We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Veeva Systems. The Vanguard Group, Inc. is currently the company's largest shareholder with 8.9% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 7.6% and 6.0%, of the shares outstanding, respectively. Peter Gassner, who is the second-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Chief Executive Officer.

Looking at the shareholder registry, we can see that 51% of the ownership is controlled by the top 19 shareholders, meaning that no single shareholder has a majority interest in the ownership.

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 Veeva Systems

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

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.

We can report that insiders do own shares in Veeva Systems Inc.. It is a very large company, and board members collectively own US$3.1b worth of shares (at current prices). It is good to see this level of investment. You can check here to see if those insiders have been buying recently.

General Public Ownership

With a 11% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Veeva Systems. 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:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Veeva Systems better, we need to consider many other factors.

Many find it useful to take an in depth look at how a company has performed in the past. You can access this detailed graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter 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.