Individual investors own 17% of G. Willi-Food International Ltd. (NASDAQ:WILC) shares but public companies control 59% of the company
Key Insights
Significant control over G. Willi-Food International by public companies implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
59% of the company is held by a single shareholder (Willy-Food Investments Ltd)
If you want to know who really controls G. Willi-Food International Ltd. (NASDAQ:WILC), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. With 59% stake, public companies possess the maximum shares in the company. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.
Meanwhile, individual investors make up 17% of the company’s shareholders.
Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of G. Willi-Food International, beginning with the chart below.
Check out our latest analysis for G. Willi-Food International
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About G. Willi-Food International?
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.
G. Willi-Food International 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 G. Willi-Food International, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.
G. Willi-Food International is not owned by hedge funds. Willy-Food Investments Ltd is currently the company's largest shareholder with 59% of shares outstanding. This essentially means that they have extensive influence, if not outright control, over the future of the corporation. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 5.8% and 5.6% of the stock.
While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. Our information suggests that there isn't any analyst coverage of the stock, so it is probably little known.
Insider Ownership Of G. Willi-Food International
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. The company management answer to the board and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board themselves.
Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.
We can see that insiders own shares in G. Willi-Food International Ltd.. As individuals, the insiders collectively own US$13m worth of the US$188m company. It is good to see some investment by insiders, but we usually like to see higher insider holdings. It might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.
General Public Ownership
With a 17% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over G. Willi-Food International. 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.
Private Company Ownership
It seems that Private Companies own 5.6%, of the G. Willi-Food International stock. 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.
Public Company Ownership
It appears to us that public companies own 59% of G. Willi-Food International. This may be a strategic interest and the two companies may have related business interests. It could be that they have de-merged. This holding is probably worth investigating further.
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. Be aware that G. Willi-Food International is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those is significant...
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.
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