Mediwound Ltd (MDWD)

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What Type Of Shareholders Own The Most Number of MediWound Ltd. (NASDAQ:MDWD) Shares?

https://simplywall.st/stocks/us/pharmaceuticals-biotech/nasdaq-mdwd/mediwound/news/what-type-of-shareholders-own-the-most-number-of-mediwound-l

BySimply Wall St

Published March 26, 2021

The big shareholder groups in MediWound Ltd. (NASDAQ:MDWD) have power over the company. Generally speaking, as a company grows, institutions will increase their ownership. Conversely, insiders often decrease their ownership over time. Warren Buffett said that he likes "a business with enduring competitive advantages that is run by able and owner-oriented people." So it's nice to see some insider ownership, because it may suggest that management is owner-oriented.

MediWound is not a large company by global standards. It has a market capitalization of US$136m, which means it wouldn't have the attention of many institutional investors. Taking a look at our data on the ownership groups (below), it seems that institutional investors have bought into the company. Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about MediWound.

ownership-breakdown

NasdaqGM:MDWD Ownership Breakdown March 26th 2021
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About MediWound?
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 MediWound does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see MediWound's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

earnings-and-revenue-growth

NasdaqGM:MDWD Earnings and Revenue Growth March 26th 2021
We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in MediWound. Clal Life Sciences L.P. is currently the largest shareholder, with 30% of shares outstanding. Migdal Mutual Funds Ltd. is the second largest shareholder owning 7.8% of common stock, and Lior Rosenberg holds about 6.8% of the company stock. In addition, we found that Sharon Malka, the CEO has 1.4% of the shares allocated to their name.

On looking further, we found that 52% of the shares are owned by the top 5 shareholders. In other words, these shareholders have a meaningful say in the decisions of the company.

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 MediWound

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

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.

I can report that insiders do own shares in MediWound Ltd.. In their own names, insiders own US$11m worth of stock in the US$136m company. It is good to see some investment by insiders, but I usually like to see higher insider holdings. It might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.

General Public Ownership

With a 37% ownership, the general public have some degree of sway over MediWound. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Private Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 30%, of the shares on issue. It might be worth looking deeper into this. If related parties, such as insiders, have an interest in one of these private companies, that should be disclosed in the annual report. Private companies may also have a strategic interest in the company.