Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by private companies in Knorr-Bremse indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy

• The largest shareholder of the company is Stella Verm?Gensverwaltungs- Gmbh with a 59% stake

• Institutions own 24% of Knorr-Bremse

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Knorr-Bremse AG (ETR:KBX), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 59% to be precise, is private companies. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Meanwhile, institutions make up 24% of the company’s shareholders. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders.

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

View our latest analysis for Knorr-Bremse

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Knorr-Bremse?

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.

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

Knorr-Bremse is not owned by hedge funds. Stella Verm?Gensverwaltungs- Gmbh is currently the company's largest shareholder with 59% of shares outstanding. With such a huge stake in the ownership, we infer that they have significant control of the future of the company. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 3.0% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 1.8% by the third-largest 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 Knorr-Bremse

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. 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.