While institutions own 33% of Taiwan Mobile Co., Ltd. (TWSE:3045), individual investors are its largest shareholders with 52% ownership

Key Insights

• Significant control over Taiwan Mobile by individual investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• The top 25 shareholders own 46% of the company
• Institutions own 33% of Taiwan Mobile

If you want to know who really controls Taiwan Mobile Co., Ltd. (TWSE:3045), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are individual investors with 52% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Meanwhile, institutions make up 33% of the company’s shareholders. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Taiwan Mobile.

View our latest analysis for Taiwan Mobile

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Taiwan Mobile?

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.

Taiwan Mobile 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. 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 Taiwan Mobile's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Taiwan Mobile. Our data shows that Cathay Life Insurance Co., Ltd., Asset Management Arm is the largest shareholder with 6.6% of shares outstanding. Shin Kong Investment Trust Co., Ltd. is the second largest shareholder owning 6.4% of common stock, and Ming Dong Industrial Co., Ltd. holds about 6.1% of the company stock.

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.

Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of Taiwan Mobile

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. 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.

We can report that insiders do own shares in Taiwan Mobile Co., Ltd.. Insiders own NT$18b worth of shares (at current prices). we sometimes take an interest in whether they have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, collectively holds 52% of Taiwan Mobile shares. With this amount of ownership, retail investors can collectively play a role in decisions that affect shareholder returns, such as dividend policies and the appointment of directors. They can also exercise the power to vote on acquisitions or mergers that may not improve profitability.

Private Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 9.9%, of the shares on issue. It's hard to draw any conclusions from this fact alone, so its worth looking into who owns those private companies. Sometimes insiders or other related parties have an interest in shares in a public company through a separate private company.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Taiwan Mobile better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 3 warning signs for Taiwan Mobile that you should be aware of before investing here.

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

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.