Key Insights

• 1&1's significant public companies ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public

• 79% of the company is held by a single shareholder (United Internet AG)

• Using data from analyst forecasts alongside ownership research, one can better assess the future performance of a company

To get a sense of who is truly in control of 1&1 AG (ETR:1U1), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are public companies with 79% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

And individual investors on the other hand have a 12% ownership in the company.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of 1&1.

See our latest analysis for 1&1

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About 1&1?

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 1&1. 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. 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 1&1's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in 1&1. United Internet AG is currently the company's largest shareholder with 79% of shares outstanding. This implies that they have majority interest 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 1.4% by the third-largest shareholder.

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 plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of 1&1

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. 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.