National Presto Industries, Inc.'s (NYSE:NPK) institutional investors lost 10% last week but have benefitted from longer-term gains

Key Insights

• Given the large stake in the stock by institutions, National Presto Industries' stock price might be vulnerable to their trading decisions
• The top 5 shareholders own 50% of the company
• Insiders own 26% of National Presto Industries

A look at the shareholders of National Presto Industries, Inc. (NYSE:NPK) can tell us which group is most powerful. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are institutions with 61% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Losing money on investments is something no shareholder enjoys, least of all institutional investors who saw their holdings value drop by 10% last week. However, the 18% one-year returns may have helped alleviate their overall losses. They should, however, be mindful of further losses in the future.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of National Presto Industries, beginning with the chart below.

Check out our latest analysis for National Presto Industries

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About National Presto Industries?

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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in National Presto Industries. 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. 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 National Presto Industries' historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. National Presto Industries is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is the CEO Maryjo Cohen with 24% of shares outstanding. With 12% and 5.1% of the shares outstanding respectively, BlackRock, Inc. and The Vanguard Group, Inc. are the second and third largest shareholders.

To make our study more interesting, we found that the top 5 shareholders control more than half of the company which implies that this group has considerable sway over the company's decision-making.

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. As far as we can tell there isn't analyst coverage of the company, so it is probably flying under the radar.

Insider Ownership Of National Presto Industries

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. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of National Presto Industries, Inc.. Insiders own US$166m worth of shares in the US$632m company. This may suggest that the founders still own a lot of shares. You can click here to see if they have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 13% stake in National Presto Industries. 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:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand National Presto Industries better, we need to consider many other factors. Case in point: We've spotted 3 warning signs for National Presto Industries you should be aware of, and 2 of them shouldn't be ignored.

If you would prefer check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, backed by strong financial data.

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.