We've discovered 2 warning signs about SMA Solar Technology. View them for free.
Every investor in SMA Solar Technology AG (ETR:S92) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are retail investors with 51% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).
While retail investors were the group that benefitted the most from last week’s €82m market cap gain, institutions too had a 26% share in those profits.
Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of SMA Solar Technology, beginning with the chart below.
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About SMA Solar Technology?
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 SMA Solar Technology. 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. 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 SMA Solar Technology's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.
XTRA:S92 Earnings and Revenue Growth May 10th 2025
We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in SMA Solar Technology. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Danfoss A/S with 20% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 4.9% and 2.9% of the stock.
A deeper look at our ownership data shows that the top 25 shareholders collectively hold less than half of the register, suggesting a large group of small holders where no single shareholder has a majority.
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 SMA Solar Technology
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.
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.
Shareholders would probably be interested to learn that insiders own shares in SMA Solar Technology AG. In their own names, insiders own €19m worth of stock in the €644m company. Some would say this shows alignment of interests between shareholders and the board. But it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.
General Public Ownership
The general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, collectively holds 51% of SMA Solar Technology shares. This level of ownership gives investors from the wider public some power to sway key policy decisions such as board composition, executive compensation, and the dividend payout ratio.
Private Company Ownership
It seems that Private Companies own 20%, of the SMA Solar Technology 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.
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. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for SMA Solar Technology you should know about.
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.
