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Institutions profited after SGL Carbon SE's (ETR:SGL) market cap rose €41m last week but individual investors profited the most

Simply Wall St · 3d ago

Key Insights

  • Significant control over SGL Carbon by individual investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
  • 54% of the business is held by the top 3 shareholders
  • 34% of SGL Carbon is held by Institutions

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A look at the shareholders of SGL Carbon SE (ETR:SGL) can tell us which group is most powerful. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are individual investors with 40% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Following a 11% increase in the stock price last week, individual investors profited the most, but institutions who own 34% stock also stood to gain from the increase.

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

Check out our latest analysis for SGL Carbon

ownership-breakdown
XTRA:SGL Ownership Breakdown January 8th 2026

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About SGL Carbon?

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.

We can see that SGL Carbon does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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. 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 SGL Carbon's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

earnings-and-revenue-growth
XTRA:SGL Earnings and Revenue Growth January 8th 2026

Hedge funds don't have many shares in SGL Carbon. The company's largest shareholder is SKion GmbH, with ownership of 28%. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 18% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 7.4% by the third-largest shareholder.

To make our study more interesting, we found that the top 3 shareholders have a majority ownership in the company, meaning that they are powerful enough to influence the decisions of the company.

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 SGL Carbon

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.

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 most recent data indicates that insiders own less than 1% of SGL Carbon SE. It has a market capitalization of just €424m, and the board has only €1.2m worth of shares in their own names. We generally like to see a board more invested. However it might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.

General Public Ownership

With a 40% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over SGL Carbon. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Public Company Ownership

Public companies currently own 26% of SGL Carbon stock. This may be a strategic interest and the two companies may have related business interests. It could be that they have de-merged. This holding is probably worth investigating further.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important.

Many find it useful to take an in depth look at how a company has performed in the past. You can access this detailed graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

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.