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With 54% institutional ownership, Naspers Limited (JSE:NPN) is a favorite amongst the big guns

Simply Wall St · 3d ago

Key Insights

  • Significantly high institutional ownership implies Naspers' stock price is sensitive to their trading actions
  • The top 25 shareholders own 48% of the company
  • Using data from analyst forecasts alongside ownership research, one can better assess the future performance of a company

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If you want to know who really controls Naspers Limited (JSE:NPN), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. We can see that institutions own the lion's share in the company with 54% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Given the vast amount of money and research capacities at their disposal, institutional ownership tends to carry a lot of weight, especially with individual investors. Hence, having a considerable amount of institutional money invested in a company is often regarded as a desirable trait.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Naspers.

See our latest analysis for Naspers

ownership-breakdown
JSE:NPN Ownership Breakdown January 5th 2026

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Naspers?

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.

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

earnings-and-revenue-growth
JSE:NPN Earnings and Revenue Growth January 5th 2026

Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences. Naspers is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Public Investment Corporation Limited with 25% of shares outstanding. 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 studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of Naspers

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

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.

Shareholders would probably be interested to learn that insiders own shares in Naspers Limited. The insiders have a meaningful stake worth R13b. It is good to see this level of investment. You can check here to see if those insiders have been buying recently.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 44% 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.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Naspers better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 2 warning signs for Naspers (1 can't be ignored!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its 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.