Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co., Ltd's (SHSE:603799) largest shareholders are individual investors with 49% ownership, institutions own 26%

Key Insights

• Significant control over Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt by individual investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• 46% of the business is held by the top 25 shareholders
• Institutional ownership in Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt is 26%

Every investor in Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co., Ltd (SHSE:603799) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are individual investors with 49% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Institutions, on the other hand, account for 26% of the company's stockholders. 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 Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt.

View our latest analysis for Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt?

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.

Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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 Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Zhejiang Huayou Holding Group Co., Ltd. with 15% of shares outstanding. Xue Hua Chen is the second largest shareholder owning 6.4% of common stock, and Citigroup Inc.,Banking and Securities Investments holds about 5.8% of the company stock.

On studying our ownership data, we found that 25 of the top shareholders collectively own less than 50% of the share register, implying that no single individual has a majority interest.

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

Insider Ownership Of Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt

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.

Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

We can see that insiders own shares in Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co., Ltd. This is a big company, so it is good to see this level of alignment. Insiders own CN¥3.4b 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, who are usually individual investors, hold a 49% stake in Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt. 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.

Private Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 18%, of the shares on issue. Private companies may be related parties. Sometimes insiders have an interest in a public company through a holding in a private company, rather than in their own capacity as an individual. While it's hard to draw any broad stroke conclusions, it is worth noting as an area for further research.

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. To that end, you should learn about the 3 warning signs we've spotted with Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt (including 1 which makes us a bit uncomfortable) .

If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its future.

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.