A look at the shareholders of Barry Callebaut AG (VTX:BARN) 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. I generally like to see some degree of insider ownership, even if only a little. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb said, 'Don’t tell me what you think, tell me what you have in your portfolio.'
With a market capitalization of CHF11b, Barry Callebaut is rather large. We'd expect to see institutional investors on the register. Companies of this size are usually well known to retail investors, too. Our analysis of the ownership of the company, below, shows that institutions own shares in the company. We can zoom in on the different ownership groups, to learn more about BARN.
View our latest analysis for Barry Callebaut
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Barry Callebaut?
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.
Barry Callebaut already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own 17% of 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. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see Barry Callebaut's historic earnings and revenue, below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.
Hedge funds don't have many shares in Barry Callebaut. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.
Insider Ownership Of Barry Callebaut
While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. 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 some shares in Barry Callebaut AG. Insiders own CHF848m worth of shares (at current prices). It is good to see this level of investment. You can check here to see if those insiders have been buying recently.