Key Insights

• Institutions' substantial holdings in Synopsys implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price

• The top 18 shareholders own 51% of the company

• Recent sales by insiders

A look at the shareholders of Synopsys, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNPS) can tell us which group is most powerful.  We can see that institutions own the lion's share in the company with 88% ownership.  Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Given the vast amount of money and research capacities at their disposal, institutional ownership tends to carry a lot of weight, especially with individual investors.  Therefore, a good portion of institutional money invested in the company is usually a huge vote of confidence on its future.  

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

NasdaqGS:SNPS Ownership Breakdown June 10th 2024

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Synopsys?

Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.

We can see that Synopsys does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock.  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 Synopsys, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

NasdaqGS:SNPS Earnings and Revenue Growth June 10th 2024

Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences.    Hedge funds don't have many shares in Synopsys.      The company's largest shareholder is The Vanguard Group, Inc., with ownership of 9.0%.       For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 8.2% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 4.9% by the third-largest shareholder.  

Looking at the shareholder registry, we can see that 51% of the ownership is controlled by the top 18 shareholders, meaning that no single shareholder has a majority interest in the ownership.  

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 Synopsys

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.

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

Our data suggests that insiders own under 1% of Synopsys, 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$514m 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 11% 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.