Gender & Investing: How Stock Choices Differ

Lists of companies with the highest female and male ownership share show significant differences in how Swedes invest their money. The choices follow recurring patterns depending on gender, according to statistics from the online broker Avanza.

– Here we clearly see that men choose foreign companies to a significantly higher extent, while women are more fond of Swedish companies. Women also more often choose consumer companies with well-known brands, says Felicia Schön.

Top fashion and skin care

On the women’s side, Swedish consumer companies dominate – from the skin care company Lyko to the fashion giant H&M – but also companies in pharmacy and health such as Midsona and the online pharmacy Meds.

The list is topped by the beauty company Lyko, where around 60 percent of the owners are women. E-commerce companies in fashion such as Boozt and Zalando are also included.

A more unexpected name is the biotech company Intervacc – a niche company whose main product is a vaccine against quark in horses. The investment company Kinnevik, strongly associated with Jan Stenbeck, is also on the list.

Games, sports and luxury cars

On the men’s list, however, companies linked to more traditionally male coded interests such as games, sports and cars dominate.

The British Games Workshop Group has the highest share of male ownership, where around 93 percent of the owners are men. The company is behind the figure games in the Warhammer universe and sells plastic figures that players build and paint themselves.

The game company Take-Two Interactive, known for the successful game series Grand Theft Auto, is also on the list – as is the luxury car manufacturer Porsche.

The football club Manchester United also appears among the men’s favourites. The club makes a lot of money from sponsorships and global fans, and themselves estimate that they have over a billion supporters worldwide.

The list also includes some lesser-known names. Real estate company Vici Properties owns casino properties in Las Vegas and leases them to major gaming operators, while Bulgarian Shelly Group develops smart home products.

Men “affected by speculation”

Another company on the list is the technology company Microcloud Hologram, which, according to Felicia Schön, is often raised in discussions about so-called pump-and-dump schemes – where shares are first hyped up sharply and then plummet when early investors sell.

– We also know that it is mainly men who are affected by this type of speculation, she says.

The phenomenon often occurs in smaller and more difficult-to-value companies where price movements can become very strong in a short time. In the case of Microcloud Hologram, the stock has fallen about 95 percent in the past year.