While insiders own 43% of Anhui Kouzi Distillery Co., Ltd. (SHSE:603589), retail investors are its largest shareholders with 46% ownership

Key Insights

• Significant control over Anhui Kouzi Distillery by retail investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• 50% of the business is held by the top 15 shareholders
• 43% of Anhui Kouzi Distillery is held by insiders

If you want to know who really controls Anhui Kouzi Distillery Co., Ltd. (SHSE:603589), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. With 46% stake, retail investors possess the maximum shares in the company. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

And individual insiders on the other hand have a 43% ownership in the company. Generally speaking, as a company grows, institutions will increase their ownership. Conversely, insiders often decrease their ownership over time.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Anhui Kouzi Distillery, beginning with the chart below.

View our latest analysis for Anhui Kouzi Distillery

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Anhui Kouzi Distillery?

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.

Anhui Kouzi Distillery already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. This implies the analysts working for those institutions have looked at the stock and they like it. But just like anyone else, they could be wrong. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of Anhui Kouzi Distillery, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Anhui Kouzi Distillery. The company's CEO Jin Xu is the largest shareholder with 18% of shares outstanding. An Sheng Liu is the second largest shareholder owning 12% of common stock, and China Merchants Fund Management Company Ltd. holds about 4.3% of the company stock.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 15 have the combined ownership of 50% in the company, suggesting that no single shareholder has significant control over the company.

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 a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future.

Insider Ownership Of Anhui Kouzi Distillery

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

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.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of Anhui Kouzi Distillery Co., Ltd.. It has a market capitalization of just CN¥22b, and insiders have CN¥9.4b worth of shares in their own names. That's quite significant. Most would be pleased to see the board is investing alongside them. You may wish to access this free chart showing recent trading by insiders.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 46% stake in Anhui Kouzi Distillery. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

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. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Anhui Kouzi Distillery you should know about.

If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.

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.