Key Insights

• Bank of Cyprus Holdings’ significant individual investors ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• The top 8 shareholders own 51% of the company
• Analyst forecasts along with ownership data serve to give a strong idea about prospects for a business

If you want to know who really controls Bank of Cyprus Holdings Public Limited Company (CSE:BOCH), 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 individual investors with 41% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Clearly, individual investors benefitted the most after the company’s market cap rose by €49m last week.

Let’s take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Bank of Cyprus Holdings.

View our latest analysis for Bank of Cyprus Holdings

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Bank of Cyprus Holdings?

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.

Bank of Cyprus Holdings 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. 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 Bank of Cyprus Holdings’ earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

It looks like hedge funds own 23% of Bank of Cyprus Holdings shares. That catches my attention because hedge funds sometimes try to influence management, or bring about changes that will create near term value for shareholders. Lamesa Group Holding S.A. is currently the largest shareholder, with 9.3% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 9.1% and 8.3% of the stock.

We did some more digging and found that 8 of the top shareholders account for roughly 51% of the register, implying that along with larger shareholders, there are a few smaller shareholders, thereby balancing out each others interests somewhat.

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 Bank of Cyprus Holdings

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.

Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own less than 1% of Bank of Cyprus Holdings Public Limited Company. But they may have an indirect interest through a corporate structure that we haven’t picked up on. It is a pretty big company, so it would be possible for board members to own a meaningful interest in the company, without owning much of a proportional interest. In this case, they own around €4.8m worth of shares (at current prices). It is always good to see at least some insider ownership, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 41% stake in Bank of Cyprus Holdings. This size of ownership, while considerable, may not be enough to change company policy if the decision is not in sync with other large shareholders.

Private Company Ownership

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 22%, of the company’s shares. 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.

Next Steps:

It’s always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Bank of Cyprus Holdings better, we need to consider many other factors. To that end, you should be aware of the 1 warning sign we’ve spotted with Bank of Cyprus Holdings .

But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter 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.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.