Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by individual investors in ZIM Integrated Shipping Services indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• 39% of the business is held by the top 25 shareholders
• Institutional ownership in ZIM Integrated Shipping Services is 22%

Every investor in ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. (NYSE:ZIM) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 56% to be precise, is individual investors. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Following a 6.9% decrease in the stock price last week, individual investors suffered the most losses, but institutions who own 22% stock also took a hit.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of ZIM Integrated Shipping Services, beginning with the chart below.

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About ZIM Integrated Shipping Services?

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.

ZIM Integrated Shipping Services already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of ZIM Integrated Shipping Services, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in ZIM Integrated Shipping Services. Court Investments Limited is currently the largest shareholder, with 21% of shares outstanding. The second and third largest shareholders are Menora Mivtachim Pensions & Gemel Ltd. and BlackRock, Inc., with an equal amount of shares to their name at 2.2%. Furthermore, CEO Eliyahu Glickman is the owner of 1.1% of the company's shares.

Our studies suggest that the top 25 shareholders collectively control less than half of the company's shares, meaning that the company's shares are widely disseminated and there is no dominant shareholder.

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

Insider Ownership Of ZIM Integrated Shipping Services

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.

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.

We can report that insiders do own shares in ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd.. It is a pretty big company, so it is generally a positive to see some potentially meaningful alignment. In this case, they own around US$13m worth of shares (at current prices). It is good to see this level of investment by insiders. You can check here to see if those insiders have been buying recently.

General Public Ownership

The general public -- including retail investors -- own 56% of ZIM Integrated Shipping Services. This level of ownership gives investors from the wider public some power to sway key policy decisions such as board composition, executive compensation, and the dividend payout ratio.

Private Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 21%, 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.

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.

I like to dive deeper into how a company has performed in the past. You can access this interactive graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow, for free.

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.