Key Insights

• Significant control over HORNBACH Holding KGaA by private companies implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• A total of 4 investors have a majority stake in the company with 52% ownership
• Insider ownership in HORNBACH Holding KGaA is 14%

If you want to know who really controls HORNBACH Holding AG & Co. KGaA (ETR:HBH), 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 private companies with 37% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

Individual investors, on the other hand, account for 27% of the company's stockholders.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of HORNBACH Holding KGaA, beginning with the chart below.

View our latest analysis for HORNBACH Holding KGaA

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About HORNBACH Holding KGaA?

Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index.

HORNBACH Holding KGaA already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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 HORNBACH Holding KGaA, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in HORNBACH Holding KGaA. The company's largest shareholder is Hornbach Familientreuhand GmbH, with ownership of 24%. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 13% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 11% by the third-largest shareholder. Furthermore, CEO Albrecht Hornbach is the owner of 0.7% of the company's shares.

Our research also brought to light the fact that roughly 52% of the company is controlled by the top 4 shareholders suggesting that these owners wield significant influence on the business.

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 HORNBACH Holding KGaA

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 most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of HORNBACH Holding AG & Co. KGaA. It is very interesting to see that insiders have a meaningful €164m stake in this €1.2b business. 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

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 27% 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.

Private Company Ownership

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 37%, 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:

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.

I always like to check for a history of revenue growth. You can too, by accessing this free chart of historic revenue and earnings in this detailed graph.

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.