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Institutional investors have a lot riding on Bega Cheese Limited (ASX:BGA) with 49% ownership

Simply Wall St · 1d ago

Key Insights

  • Institutions' substantial holdings in Bega Cheese implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price
  • A total of 14 investors have a majority stake in the company with 51% ownership
  • Insiders own 13% of Bega Cheese

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To get a sense of who is truly in control of Bega Cheese Limited (ASX:BGA), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. We can see that institutions own the lion's share in the company with 49% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

And last week, institutional investors ended up benefitting the most after the company hit AU$1.9b in market cap. One-year return to shareholders is currently 15% and last week’s gain was the icing on the cake.

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

Check out our latest analysis for Bega Cheese

ownership-breakdown
ASX:BGA Ownership Breakdown December 19th 2025

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Bega Cheese?

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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Bega Cheese. 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 Bega Cheese's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

earnings-and-revenue-growth
ASX:BGA Earnings and Revenue Growth December 19th 2025

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Bega Cheese. John Forrest is currently the largest shareholder, with 11% of shares outstanding. The Vanguard Group, Inc. is the second largest shareholder owning 5.1% of common stock, and Australian Retirement Trust Pty Ltd holds about 5.0% of the company stock.

A closer look at our ownership figures suggests that the top 14 shareholders have a combined ownership of 51% implying that 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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Bega Cheese

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.

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 Bega Cheese Limited. It is very interesting to see that insiders have a meaningful AU$248m stake in this AU$1.9b business. Most would be pleased to see the board is investing alongside them. You may wish to access this free chart showing recent trading by insiders.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 35% stake in Bega Cheese. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

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.

I like to dive deeper into how a company has performed in the past. You can find historic revenue and earnings in this detailed graph.

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.