Key Insights

• Given the large stake in the stock by institutions, GE HealthCare Technologies' stock price might be vulnerable to their trading decisions

• 50% of the business is held by the top 7 shareholders

• Ownership research along with analyst forecasts data help provide a good understanding of opportunities in a stock

Every investor in GE HealthCare Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:GEHC) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are institutions with 69% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Institutional investors endured the highest losses after the company's market cap fell by US$2.0b last week. However, the 18% one-year returns may have helped alleviate their overall losses. We would assume however, that they would be on the lookout for weakness in the future.

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

See our latest analysis for GE HealthCare Technologies

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About GE HealthCare Technologies?

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.

We can see that GE HealthCare Technologies 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 GE HealthCare Technologies' historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Investors should note that institutions actually own more than half the company, so they can collectively wield significant power. Hedge funds don't have many shares in GE HealthCare Technologies. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Capital Research and Management Company with 11% of shares outstanding. The second and third largest shareholders are General Electric Company and The Vanguard Group, Inc., with an equal amount of shares to their name at 10%.

We also observed that the top 7 shareholders account for more than half of the share register, with a few smaller shareholders to balance the interests of the larger ones to a certain extent.

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

Insider Ownership Of GE HealthCare Technologies

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. 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 data suggests that insiders own under 1% of GE HealthCare Technologies Inc. in their own names. Being so large, we would not expect insiders to own a large proportion of the stock. Collectively, they own US$25m of stock. In this sort of situation, it can be more interesting to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 20% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. 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.

Public Company Ownership

It appears to us that public companies own 10% of GE HealthCare Technologies. This may be a strategic interest and the two companies may have related business interests. It could be that they have de-merged. This holding is probably worth investigating further.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Case in point: We've spotted 2 warning signs for GE HealthCare Technologies you should be aware of.

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.

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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.