Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by private companies in George Weston indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy

• The largest shareholder of the company is Wittington Investments, Limited with a 55% stake

• Insiders have sold recently

If you want to know who really controls George Weston Limited (TSE:WN), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. We can see that private companies own the lion's share in the company with 55% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Individual investors, on the other hand, account for 31% of the company's stockholders.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about George Weston.

Check out our latest analysis for George Weston

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About George Weston?

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.

George Weston already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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. 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 George Weston's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in George Weston. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Wittington Investments, Limited with 55% of shares outstanding. With such a huge stake in the ownership, we infer that they have significant control of the future of the company. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 3.3% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 1.7% by the third-largest shareholder.

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 plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of George Weston

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.