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What Kind Of Investors Own Most Of Air New Zealand Limited (NZSE:AIR)?

If you want to know who really controls Air New Zealand Limited (NZSE:AIR), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. Institutions will often hold stock in bigger companies, and we expect to see insiders owning a noticeable percentage of the smaller ones. We also tend to see lower insider ownership in companies that were previously publicly owned.

Air New Zealand isn't enormous, but it's not particularly small either. It has a market capitalization of NZ$1.6b, which means it would generally expect to see some institutions on the share registry. Our analysis of the ownership of the company, below, shows that institutions own shares in the company. Let's delve deeper into each type of owner, to discover more about Air New Zealand.

View our latest analysis for Air New Zealand

NZSE:AIR Ownership Breakdown July 4th 2020
NZSE:AIR Ownership Breakdown July 4th 2020

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Air New Zealand?

Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index.

We can see that Air New Zealand 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. 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 Air New Zealand's earnings history, below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

NZSE:AIR Earnings and Revenue Growth July 4th 2020
NZSE:AIR Earnings and Revenue Growth July 4th 2020

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Air New Zealand. The New Zealand Government is currently the company's largest shareholder with 52% of shares outstanding. This implies that they have majority interest control of the future of the company. With 7.8% and 2.6% of the shares outstanding respectively, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Private Banking and Investment Banking Investments and Capital Research and Management Company are the second and third largest shareholders.

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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Air New Zealand

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. The company management answer to the board; and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board, themselves.

Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own less than 1% of Air New Zealand Limited. It's a big company, so even a small proportional interest can create alignment between the board and shareholders. In this case insiders own NZ$13m worth of shares. It is always good to see at least some insider ownership, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 24% ownership, the general public have some degree of sway over AIR. 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. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 4 warning signs for Air New Zealand you should know about.

If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.

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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