Every investor in ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. (NYSE:ZIM) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. We can see that institutions own the lion's share in the company with 38% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

After a year of 48% losses, last week's 8.2% gain would be welcomed by institutional investors as a likely sign that returns might start trending higher.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of ZIM Integrated Shipping Services.

View our latest analysis for ZIM Integrated Shipping Services

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About ZIM Integrated Shipping Services?

Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.

ZIM Integrated Shipping Services 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 ZIM Integrated Shipping Services' earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in ZIM Integrated Shipping Services. Court Investments Limited is currently the company's largest shareholder with 26% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 3.2% and 2.8% of the stock. In addition, we found that Eliyahu Glickman, the CEO has 1.3% of the shares allocated to their name.

A closer look at our ownership figures suggests that the top 15 shareholders have a combined ownership of 50% implying that no single shareholder has a majority.

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 ZIM Integrated Shipping Services

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

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.

We can see that insiders own shares in ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd.. The insiders have a meaningful stake worth US$28m. Most would see this as a real positive. If you would like to explore the question of insider alignment, you can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 35% stake in ZIM Integrated Shipping Services. 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

It seems that Private Companies own 26%, of the ZIM Integrated Shipping Services stock. It's hard to draw any conclusions from this fact alone, so its worth looking into who owns those private companies. Sometimes insiders or other related parties have an interest in shares in a public company through a separate private company.

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. To that end, you should learn about the 2 warning signs we've spotted with ZIM Integrated Shipping Services (including 1 which can't be ignored) .

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

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.