Key Insights

• Institutions' substantial holdings in WK Kellogg Co implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price

• The top 11 shareholders own 50% of the company

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

If you want to know who really controls WK Kellogg Co (NYSE:KLG), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. We can see that institutions own the lion's share in the company with 81% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

Since institutional have access to huge amounts of capital, their market moves tend to receive a lot of scrutiny by retail or individual investors. Hence, having a considerable amount of institutional money invested in a company is often regarded as a desirable trait.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of WK Kellogg Co.

Check out our latest analysis for WK Kellogg Co

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About WK Kellogg Co?

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.

WK Kellogg Co 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. 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 WK Kellogg Co, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Investors should note that institutions actually own more than half the company, so they can collectively wield significant power. WK Kellogg Co is not owned by hedge funds. W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Endowment Fund is currently the company's largest shareholder with 16% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 9.7% and 6.2%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.

Looking at the shareholder registry, we can see that 50% of the ownership is controlled by the top 11 shareholders, meaning that no single shareholder has a majority interest in the ownership.

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