Key Insights

• Given the large stake in the stock by institutions, Hilton Food Group's stock price might be vulnerable to their trading decisions

• 52% of the business is held by the top 15 shareholders

• Insiders have sold recently

A look at the shareholders of Hilton Food Group plc (LON:HFG) can tell us which group is most powerful. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are institutions with 76% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Given the vast amount of money and research capacities at their disposal, institutional ownership tends to carry a lot of weight, especially with individual investors. As a result, a sizeable amount of institutional money invested in a firm is generally viewed as a positive attribute.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Hilton Food Group.

Check out our latest analysis for Hilton Food Group

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Hilton Food Group?

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 Hilton Food Group does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of Hilton Food Group, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences. Hedge funds don't have many shares in Hilton Food Group. abrdn plc is currently the company's largest shareholder with 9.2% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 5.2% and 4.4%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 15 have the combined ownership of 52% in the company, suggesting that no single shareholder has significant control over the company.

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.