Key Insights

• PVA TePla's significant retail investors ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public

• 39% of the business is held by the top 25 shareholders

• Institutions own 37% of PVA TePla

To get a sense of who is truly in control of PVA TePla AG (ETR:TPE), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are retail investors with 59% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

And institutions on the other hand have a 37% ownership in the company. Generally speaking, as a company grows, institutions will increase their ownership. Conversely, insiders often decrease their ownership over time.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of PVA TePla, beginning with the chart below.

See our latest analysis for PVA TePla

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About PVA TePla?

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.

PVA TePla already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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 PVA TePla'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 PVA TePla. Lazard Frères Gestion SAS is currently the company's largest shareholder with 8.9% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 5.0% and 4.9% of the stock.

A deeper look at our ownership data shows that the top 25 shareholders collectively hold less than half of the register, suggesting a large group of small holders where no single shareholder has a majority.

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. There are a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future.