Individual investors in Jiangsu Fasten Company Limited (SZSE:000890) are its biggest bettors, and their bets paid off as stock gained 12% last week

Key Insights

• Significant control over Jiangsu Fasten by individual investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• The top 10 shareholders own 50% of the company
• Past performance of a company along with ownership data serve to give a strong idea about prospects for a business

If you want to know who really controls Jiangsu Fasten Company Limited (SZSE:000890), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. We can see that individual 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.

As a result, individual investors collectively scored the highest last week as the company hit CN¥1.2b market cap following a 12% gain in the stock.

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

Check out our latest analysis for Jiangsu Fasten

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Jiangsu Fasten?

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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Jiangsu Fasten. 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. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Jiangsu Fasten's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Jiangsu Fasten. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Jiangsu Fasten Group Co., Ltd. with 27% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 14% and 5.2% of the stock.

On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 10 shareholders, suggesting that the interests of the larger shareholders are balanced out to an extent by the smaller ones.

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 Jiangsu Fasten

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. 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.

I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.

We can report that insiders do own shares in Jiangsu Fasten Company Limited. In their own names, insiders own CN¥61m worth of stock in the CN¥1.2b company. This shows at least some alignment, but we usually like to see larger insider holdings. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 49% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Jiangsu Fasten. 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

It seems that Private Companies own 40%, of the Jiangsu Fasten stock. 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 Jiangsu Fasten better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 3 warning signs for Jiangsu Fasten (1 is a bit concerning!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies.

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.