Could The Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft Aktiengesellschaft (FRA:MUV2) Ownership Structure Tell Us Something Useful?
A look at the shareholders of Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft Aktiengesellschaft (FRA:MUV2) can tell us which group is most powerful. Institutions often own shares in more established companies, while it’s not unusual to see insiders own a fair bit of smaller companies. Companies that have been privatized tend to have low insider ownership.
Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft has a market capitalization of €28.2b, so it’s too big to fly under the radar. We’d expect to see both institutions and retail investors owning a portion of the company. In the chart below below, we can see that institutions are noticeable on the share registry. Let’s take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholder can tell us about MUV2.
Check out our latest analysis for Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft?
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.
We can see that Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft does have institutional investors; and they hold 38% of the 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 Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.
Hedge funds don’t have many shares in Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.
Insider Ownership Of Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft
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 data suggests that insiders own under 1% of Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft Aktiengesellschaft in their own names. Being so large, we would not expect insiders to own a large proportion of the stock. Collectively, they own €9m of stock. It is always good to see at least some insider ownership, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.
General Public Ownership
The general public, who are mostly retail investors, collectively hold 62% of Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft shares. With this size of ownership, retail investors can collectively play a role in decisions that affect shareholder returns, such as dividend policies and the appointment of directors. They can also exercise the power to decline an acquisition or merger that may not improve profitability.
Next Steps:
It’s always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft better, we need to consider many other factors.
I like to dive deeper into how a company has performed in the past. You can find historic revenue and earnings in this detailed graph.
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.
To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.
The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
