Insiders were the biggest winners as Hebei Yangyuan ZhiHui Beverage Co., Ltd.'s (SHSE:603156) market cap grew by CN¥923m last week

Key Insights

• Hebei Yangyuan ZhiHui Beverage's significant insider ownership suggests inherent interests in company's expansion
• The top 4 shareholders own 59% of the company
• Using data from company's past performance alongside ownership research, one can better assess the future performance of a company

If you want to know who really controls Hebei Yangyuan ZhiHui Beverage Co., Ltd. (SHSE:603156), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 52% to be precise, is individual insiders. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

As a result, insiders were the biggest beneficiaries of last week’s 3.9% gain.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Hebei Yangyuan ZhiHui Beverage.

See our latest analysis for Hebei Yangyuan ZhiHui Beverage

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Hebei Yangyuan ZhiHui Beverage?

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.

Institutions have a very small stake in Hebei Yangyuan ZhiHui Beverage. That indicates that the company is on the radar of some funds, but it isn't particularly popular with professional investors at the moment. So if the company itself can improve over time, we may well see more institutional buyers in the future. When multiple institutional investors want to buy shares, we often see a rising share price. The past revenue trajectory (shown below) can be an indication of future growth, but there are no guarantees.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Hebei Yangyuan ZhiHui Beverage. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Kuizhang Yao with 21% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 18% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 9.9% by the third-largest shareholder. Hongbing Li, who is the third-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Chairman of Corporate Board. In addition, we found that Zhaolin Fan, the CEO has 9.9% of the shares allocated to their name.

To make our study more interesting, we found that the top 4 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. We're not picking up on any analyst coverage of the stock at the moment, so the company is unlikely to be widely held.

Insider Ownership Of Hebei Yangyuan ZhiHui Beverage

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. 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.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own the majority of Hebei Yangyuan ZhiHui Beverage Co., Ltd.. This means they can collectively make decisions for the company. Given it has a market cap of CN¥25b, that means insiders have a whopping CN¥13b worth of shares in their own names. Most would argue this is a positive, showing strong alignment with shareholders. You can click here to see if they have been selling down their stake.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 26% stake in Hebei Yangyuan ZhiHui Beverage. 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

It seems that Private Companies own 18%, of the Hebei Yangyuan ZhiHui Beverage stock. 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:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Hebei Yangyuan ZhiHui Beverage better, we need to consider many other factors. Take risks for example - Hebei Yangyuan ZhiHui Beverage has 2 warning signs we think you should be aware of.

Of course this may not be the best stock to buy. Therefore, you may wish to see our free collection of interesting prospects boasting favorable financials.

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.