WEBULL

Wolters Kluwer N.V.'s (AMS:WKL) recent 5.8% pullback adds to one-year year losses, institutional owners may take drastic measures

Simply Wall St · 06/15 07:03

Key Insights

  • Significantly high institutional ownership implies Wolters Kluwer's stock price is sensitive to their trading actions
  • A total of 25 investors have a majority stake in the company with 37% ownership
  • Using data from analyst forecasts alongside ownership research, one can better assess the future performance of a company

We've found 21 US stocks that are forecast to pay a dividend yield of over 6% next year. See the full list for free.

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Wolters Kluwer N.V. (AMS:WKL), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are institutions with 53% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

And institutional investors saw their holdings value drop by 5.8% last week. Needless to say, the recent loss which further adds to the one-year loss to shareholders of 2.7% might not go down well especially with this category of shareholders. Often called “market movers", institutions wield significant power in influencing the price dynamics of any stock. As a result, if the decline continues, institutional investors may be pressured to sell Wolters Kluwer which might hurt individual investors.

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

Check out our latest analysis for Wolters Kluwer

ownership-breakdown
ENXTAM:WKL Ownership Breakdown June 15th 2025

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Wolters Kluwer?

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.

We can see that Wolters Kluwer does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. 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 Wolters Kluwer, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

earnings-and-revenue-growth
ENXTAM:WKL Earnings and Revenue Growth June 15th 2025

Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences. Wolters Kluwer is not owned by hedge funds. The company's largest shareholder is BlackRock, Inc., with ownership of 5.8%. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 4.4% and 3.3% of the stock.

Our studies suggest that the top 25 shareholders collectively control less than half of the company's shares, meaning that the company's shares are widely disseminated and there is no dominant shareholder.

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 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 Wolters Kluwer

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. 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.

Our data suggests that insiders own under 1% of Wolters Kluwer N.V. in their own names. It is a very large company, so it would be surprising to see insiders own a large proportion of the company. Though their holding amounts to less than 1%, we can see that board members collectively own €15m worth of shares (at current prices). In this sort of situation, it can be more interesting to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 47% stake in Wolters Kluwer. 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.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for Wolters Kluwer that you should be aware of.

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.