What Is The Ownership Structure Like For Crest Nicholson Holdings plc (LON:CRST)?

If you want to know who really controls Crest Nicholson Holdings plc (LON:CRST), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders. Companies that have been privatized tend to have low insider ownership.

Crest Nicholson Holdings has a market capitalization of UK£616m, so we would expect some institutional investors to have noticed the stock. Our analysis of the ownership of the company, below, shows that institutional investors have bought into the company. Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Crest Nicholson Holdings.

View our latest analysis for Crest Nicholson Holdings

ownership-breakdown
ownership-breakdown

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Crest Nicholson Holdings?

Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices.

We can see that Crest Nicholson Holdings does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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. 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 Crest Nicholson Holdings' earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

earnings-and-revenue-growth
earnings-and-revenue-growth

Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences. Crest Nicholson Holdings is not owned by hedge funds. The company's largest shareholder is Columbia Management Investment Advisers, LLC, with ownership of 8.3%. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 7.9% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 4.3% by the third-largest shareholder.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 12 have the combined ownership of 52% in the company, suggesting that no single shareholder has significant control over the company.

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 Crest Nicholson Holdings

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

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

Our information suggests that Crest Nicholson Holdings plc insiders own under 1% of the company. It has a market capitalization of just UK£616m, and the board has only UK£2.9m worth of shares in their own names. I generally like to see a board more invested. However it might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.

General Public Ownership

The general public holds a 12% stake in Crest Nicholson Holdings. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.

Next Steps:

I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Be aware that Crest Nicholson Holdings is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those is a bit unpleasant...

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.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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.

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