Institutional owners may take dramatic actions as Arvinas, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:ARVN) recent 11% drop adds to one-year losses

Simply Wall St · 11/13/2023 10:25

Key Insights

  • Given the large stake in the stock by institutions, Arvinas' stock price might be vulnerable to their trading decisions
  • 53% of the business is held by the top 9 shareholders
  • Ownership research along with analyst forecasts data help provide a good understanding of opportunities in a stock

Every investor in Arvinas, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARVN) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. We can see that institutions own the lion's share in the company with 74% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

And so it follows that institutional investors was the group most impacted after the company's market cap fell to US$825m last week after a 11% drop in the share price. This set of investors may especially be concerned about the current loss, which adds to a one-year loss of 71% for shareholders. Also referred to as "smart money", institutions have a lot of sway over how a stock's price moves. As a result, if the decline continues, institutional investors may be pressured to sell Arvinas which might hurt individual investors.

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

See our latest analysis for Arvinas

ownership-breakdown
NasdaqGS:ARVN Ownership Breakdown November 13th 2023

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Arvinas?

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.

We can see that Arvinas 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 Arvinas, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

earnings-and-revenue-growth
NasdaqGS:ARVN Earnings and Revenue Growth November 13th 2023

Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences. Our data indicates that hedge funds own 12% of Arvinas. That worth noting, since hedge funds are often quite active investors, who may try to influence management. Many want to see value creation (and a higher share price) in the short term or medium term. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is BlackRock, Inc. with 8.9% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 8.2% and 8.0%, of the shares outstanding, respectively. Furthermore, CEO John Houston is the owner of 1.7% of the company's shares.

On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 9 shareholders, suggesting that the interests of the larger shareholders are balanced out to an extent by the smaller ones.

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 Arvinas

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

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.

We can report that insiders do own shares in Arvinas, Inc.. In their own names, insiders own US$21m worth of stock in the US$825m company. It is good to see some investment by insiders, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 11% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Take risks for example - Arvinas has 2 warning signs we think you should be aware of.

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.