Retail investors among Thinker Agricultural Machinery Co., Ltd.'s (SHSE:603789) largest shareholders, saw gain in holdings value after stock jumped 15% last week

Key Insights

• Significant control over Thinker Agricultural Machinery by retail investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• The top 5 shareholders own 50% of the company
• 25% of Thinker Agricultural Machinery is held by insiders

If you want to know who really controls Thinker Agricultural Machinery Co., Ltd. (SHSE:603789), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. We can see that retail investors own the lion's share in the company with 39% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

Clearly, retail investors benefitted the most after the company's market cap rose by CN¥232m last week.

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

Check out our latest analysis for Thinker Agricultural Machinery

What Does The Lack Of Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Thinker Agricultural Machinery?

Institutional investors often avoid companies that are too small, too illiquid or too risky for their tastes. But it's unusual to see larger companies without any institutional investors.

There are multiple explanations for why institutions don't own a stock. The most common is that the company is too small relative to funds under management, so the institution does not bother to look closely at the company. Alternatively, there might be something about the company that has kept institutional investors away. Institutional investors may not find the historic growth of the business impressive, or there might be other factors at play. You can see the past revenue performance of Thinker Agricultural Machinery, for yourself, below.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Thinker Agricultural Machinery. Our data shows that CRCC Urban Traffic Co., Ltd. is the largest shareholder with 17% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 11% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 9.1% by the third-largest shareholder. Shenqiang Zhang, who is the third-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Member of the Board of Directors. In addition, we found that Zheng Bin, the CEO has 0.6% of the shares allocated to their name.

To make our study more interesting, we found that the top 5 shareholders control more than half of the company which implies that this group has considerable sway over the company's decision-making.

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. As far as we can tell there isn't analyst coverage of the company, so it is probably flying under the radar.

Insider Ownership Of Thinker Agricultural Machinery

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.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of Thinker Agricultural Machinery Co., Ltd.. Insiders have a CN¥438m stake in this CN¥1.8b business. This may suggest that the founders still own a lot of shares. You can click here to see if they have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 39% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Private Company Ownership

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 36%, of the company's shares. It might be worth looking deeper into this. If related parties, such as insiders, have an interest in one of these private companies, that should be disclosed in the annual report. Private companies may also have a strategic interest in the company.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Be aware that Thinker Agricultural Machinery is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 2 of those are concerning...

If you would prefer check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, backed by strong financial data.

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.