Key Insights

• Significant control over AC Immune by individual investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• The top 4 shareholders own 55% of the company
• Using data from analyst forecasts alongside ownership research, one can better assess the future performance of a company

We've discovered 1 warning sign about AC Immune. View them for free.

To get a sense of who is truly in control of AC Immune SA (NASDAQ:ACIU), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. We can see that individual investors own the lion's share in the company with 33% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

As a result, individual investors collectively scored the highest last week as the company hit US$164m market cap following a 11% gain in the stock.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of AC Immune, beginning with the chart below.

View our latest analysis for AC Immune

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About AC Immune?

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 AC Immune 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 AC Immune's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

It looks like hedge funds own 20% of AC Immune shares. That catches my attention because hedge funds sometimes try to influence management, or bring about changes that will create near term value for shareholders. BVF Partners L.P. is currently the company's largest shareholder with 20% of shares outstanding. dievini Hopp BioTech holding GmbH & Co. KG is the second largest shareholder owning 16% of common stock, and Varuma AG holds about 12% of the company stock. In addition, we found that Andrea Pfeifer, the CEO has 3.0% of the shares allocated to their name.

Our research also brought to light the fact that roughly 55% of the company is controlled by the top 4 shareholders suggesting that these owners wield significant influence on the business.

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 AC Immune

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. 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.

We can report that insiders do own shares in AC Immune SA. In their own names, insiders own US$5.9m worth of stock in the US$164m company. Some would say this shows alignment of interests between shareholders and the board, though we generally prefer to see bigger insider holdings. But it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 33% 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.

Private Equity Ownership

With a stake of 29%, private equity firms could influence the AC Immune board. Some might like this, because private equity are sometimes activists who hold management accountable. But other times, private equity is selling out, having taking the company public.

Private Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 6.5%, of the shares on issue. 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:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand AC Immune better, we need to consider many other factors. To that end, you should be aware of the 1 warning sign we've spotted with AC Immune .

But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter future.

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.