Do Institutions Own Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI) Shares?
The big shareholder groups in Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI) have power over the company. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders. I quite like to see at least a little bit of insider ownership. As Charlie Munger said 'Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome.
Levi Strauss has a market capitalization of US$9.6b, 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, we can see that institutions own shares in the company. We can zoom in on the different ownership groups, to learn more about Levi Strauss.
Check out our latest analysis for Levi Strauss
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Levi Strauss?
Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.
As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Levi Strauss. 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. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Levi Strauss' earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.
Levi Strauss is not owned by hedge funds. Our data shows that Miriam Haas is the largest shareholder with 11% of shares outstanding. Robert Haas is the second largest shareholder owning 9.4% of common stock, and Margaret Haas holds about 8.7% of the company stock. Furthermore, CEO Charles Bergh is the owner of 1.0% of the company's shares.
On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 7 shareholders, suggesting that the interests of the larger shareholders are balanced out to an extent by the smaller ones.
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. There are a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future.
Insider Ownership Of Levi Strauss
The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. 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.
It seems that insiders own more than half the Levi Strauss & Co. stock. This gives them a lot of power. Given it has a market cap of US$9.6b, that means insiders have a whopping US$5.5b worth of shares in their own names. It is good to see this level of investment. You can check here to see if those insiders have been selling any of their shares.
General Public Ownership
With a 16% ownership, the general public have some degree of sway over Levi Strauss. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.
Next Steps:
It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Levi Strauss better, we need to consider many other factors. Be aware that Levi Strauss is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those makes us a bit uncomfortable...
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.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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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