Marley Spoon Group SE's (ETR:MS1) largest shareholders are retail investors who were rewarded as market cap surged €38m last week
Key Insights
The considerable ownership by retail investors in Marley Spoon Group indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
52% of the business is held by the top 6 shareholders
If you want to know who really controls Marley Spoon Group SE (ETR:MS1), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 43% to be precise, is retail investors. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).
As a result, retail investors collectively scored the highest last week as the company hit €157m market cap following a 31% gain in the stock.
In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Marley Spoon Group.
View our latest analysis for Marley Spoon Group
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Marley Spoon Group?
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.
Marley Spoon Group 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 Marley Spoon Group, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.
Marley Spoon Group is not owned by hedge funds. Our data shows that 468 Capital is the largest shareholder with 31% of shares outstanding. With 8.0% and 5.1% of the shares outstanding respectively, 468 Capital II Carry GmbH & Co. KG and Sudeep Ramnani are the second and third largest shareholders.
On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 6 shareholders, suggesting that the interests of the larger shareholders are balanced out to an extent by the smaller ones.
While it makes sense to study institutional ownership data for a company, it also makes sense to study analyst sentiments to know which way the wind is blowing. There is a little analyst coverage of the stock, but not much. So there is room for it to gain more coverage.
Insider Ownership Of Marley Spoon Group
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.
Our most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of Marley Spoon Group SE. Insiders own €20m worth of shares in the €157m company. It is great to see insiders so invested in the business. It might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying recently.
General Public Ownership
The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 43% stake in Marley Spoon Group. This size of ownership, while considerable, may not be enough to change company policy if the decision is not in sync with other large shareholders.
Private Equity Ownership
With an ownership of 31%, private equity firms are in a position to play a role in shaping corporate strategy with a focus on value creation. Some might like this, because private equity are sometimes activists who hold management accountable. But other times, private equity is selling out, having taking the company public.
Private Company Ownership
We can see that Private Companies own 8.0%, of the shares on issue. 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. For instance, we've identified 5 warning signs for Marley Spoon Group (3 make us uncomfortable) that you should be aware of.
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.
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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.
