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

If you want to know who really controls Orthofix Medical Inc. (NASDAQ:OFIX), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. We can see that institutions own the lion's share in the company with 55% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

Since institutional have access to huge amounts of capital, their market moves tend to receive a lot of scrutiny by retail or individual investors. Therefore, a good portion of institutional money invested in the company is usually a huge vote of confidence on its future.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Orthofix Medical.

See our latest analysis for Orthofix Medical

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 Orthofix Medical 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. 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 Orthofix Medical's 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. Our data indicates that hedge funds own 32% of Orthofix Medical. That catches my attention because hedge funds sometimes try to influence management, or bring about changes that will create near term value for shareholders. Our data shows that Rubric Capital Management LP is the largest shareholder with 9.7% of shares outstanding. With 9.0% and 8.0% of the shares outstanding respectively, Engine Capital Management, LP and BlackRock, Inc. are the second and third largest shareholders.