Institutional owners may take dramatic actions as Vátryggingafélag Íslands hf.'s (ICE:VIS) recent 11% drop adds to one-year losses

Simply Wall St · 09/15/2023 04:01

Key Insights

  • Significantly high institutional ownership implies Vátryggingafélag Íslands hf's stock price is sensitive to their trading actions
  • 51% of the business is held by the top 7 shareholders
  • Past performance of a company along with ownership data serve to give a strong idea about prospects for a business

If you want to know who really controls Vátryggingafélag Íslands hf. (ICE:VIS), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are institutions with 55% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

As a result, institutional investors endured the highest losses last week after market cap fell by Kr3.6b. This set of investors may especially be concerned about the current loss, which adds to a one-year loss of 11% for 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 Vátryggingafélag Íslands hf which might hurt individual investors.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Vátryggingafélag Íslands hf, beginning with the chart below.

See our latest analysis for Vátryggingafélag Íslands hf

ownership-breakdown
ICSE:VIS Ownership Breakdown September 15th 2023

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Vátryggingafélag Íslands hf?

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.

Vátryggingafélag Íslands hf already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see Vátryggingafélag Íslands hf's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

earnings-and-revenue-growth
ICSE:VIS Earnings and Revenue Growth September 15th 2023

Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Vátryggingafélag Íslands hf. Our data shows that Gildi - lífeyrissjódur is the largest shareholder with 9.0% of shares outstanding. Skel fjárfestingafélag hf. is the second largest shareholder owning 9.0% of common stock, and Sjávarsýn ehf. holds about 7.6% of the company stock.

We also observed that the top 7 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. Our information suggests that there isn't any analyst coverage of the stock, so it is probably little known.

Insider Ownership Of Vátryggingafélag Íslands hf

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

Our data suggests that insiders own under 1% of Vátryggingafélag Íslands hf. in their own names. However, it's possible that insiders might have an indirect interest through a more complex structure. It has a market capitalization of just Kr27b, and the board has only Kr68m worth of shares in their own names. Many investors in smaller companies prefer to see the board more heavily invested. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 28% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Vátryggingafélag Íslands hf. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.

Private Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 7.6%, of the shares on issue. It might be worth looking deeper into this. If related parties, such as insiders, have an interest in one of these private companies, that should be disclosed in the annual report. Private companies may also have a strategic interest in the company.

Public Company Ownership

Public companies currently own 9.0% of Vátryggingafélag Íslands hf stock. We can't be certain but it is quite possible this is a strategic stake. The businesses may be similar, or work together.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Vátryggingafélag Íslands hf better, we need to consider many other factors. Take risks for example - Vátryggingafélag Íslands hf has 2 warning signs we think you should be aware of.

Of course this may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free free list of interesting companies.

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.