Soochow Securities Co., Ltd.'s (SHSE:601555) top owners are retail investors with 49% stake, while 38% is held by private companies

Key Insights

• Significant control over Soochow Securities by retail investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• The top 21 shareholders own 50% of the company
• 14% of Soochow Securities is held by Institutions

If you want to know who really controls Soochow Securities Co., Ltd. (SHSE:601555), 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 49% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Meanwhile, private companies make up 38% of the company’s shareholders.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Soochow Securities.

See our latest analysis for Soochow Securities

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Soochow Securities?

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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Soochow Securities. 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 Soochow Securities' historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Soochow Securities is not owned by hedge funds. Suzhou International Development Group Co., Ltd is currently the largest shareholder, with 27% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 4.5% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 3.0% by the third-largest shareholder.

Looking at the shareholder registry, we can see that 50% of the ownership is controlled by the top 21 shareholders, meaning that no single shareholder has a majority interest in the ownership.

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 Soochow Securities

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.

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.

Our data cannot confirm that board members are holding shares personally. It is unusual not to have at least some personal holdings by board members, so our data might be flawed. A good next step would be to check how much the CEO is paid.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 49% stake in Soochow Securities. 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

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 38%, of the company's shares. 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 Soochow Securities better, we need to consider many other factors. To that end, you should be aware of the 1 warning sign we've spotted with Soochow Securities .

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.