Following a 57% decline over last year, recent gains may please Worldline SA (EPA:WLN) institutional owners

Simply Wall St · 06/10 04:11

Key Insights

  • Institutions' substantial holdings in Worldline implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price
  • 53% of the business is held by the top 8 shareholders
  • Using data from analyst forecasts alongside ownership research, one can better assess the future performance of a company

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Every investor in Worldline SA (EPA:WLN) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. We can see that institutions own the lion's share in the company with 52% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Institutional investors would appreciate the 3.3% increase in share price last week, given their one-year losses have totalled a disappointing 57%.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Worldline.

View our latest analysis for Worldline

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ENXTPA:WLN Ownership Breakdown June 10th 2025

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Worldline?

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.

Worldline already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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. 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 Worldline, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

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ENXTPA:WLN Earnings and Revenue Growth June 10th 2025

Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences. Hedge funds don't have many shares in Worldline. SIX Group Ltd is currently the company's largest shareholder with 11% of shares outstanding. The second and third largest shareholders are Amundi Asset Management SAS and SAS Rue La Boetie, with an equal amount of shares to their name at 7.0%.

We also observed that the top 8 shareholders account for more than half of the share register, with a few smaller shareholders to balance the interests of the larger ones to a certain extent.

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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Worldline

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. 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.

Our data suggests that insiders own under 1% of Worldline SA in their own names. However, it's possible that insiders might have an indirect interest through a more complex structure. Keep in mind that it's a big company, and the insiders own €144k worth of shares. The absolute value might be more important than the proportional share. Arguably, recent buying and selling is just as important to consider. You can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 26% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. 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 a stake of 5.0%, private equity firms could influence the Worldline board. 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

It seems that Private Companies own 18%, of the Worldline 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:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. To that end, you should be aware of the 1 warning sign we've spotted with Worldline .

If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.

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.