Tianqi Lithium Corporation's (SZSE:002466) largest shareholders are retail investors who were rewarded as market cap surged CN¥1.8b last week

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by retail investors in Tianqi Lithium indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• The top 25 shareholders own 42% of the company
• Institutions own 12% of Tianqi Lithium

If you want to know who really controls Tianqi Lithium Corporation (SZSE:002466), 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 56% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

As a result, retail investors were the biggest beneficiaries of last week’s 3.4% gain.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Tianqi Lithium.

Check out our latest analysis for Tianqi Lithium

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Tianqi Lithium?

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.

Tianqi Lithium already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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. 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 Tianqi Lithium's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Tianqi Lithium. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Chengdu Tianqi Industry Group Co., Ltd. with 25% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 4.2% and 1.7% of the stock. Weiping Jiang, who is the second-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Top Key Executive.

Our studies suggest that the top 25 shareholders collectively control less than half of the company's shares, meaning that the company's shares are widely disseminated and there is no dominant shareholder.

While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of Tianqi Lithium

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.

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.

Shareholders would probably be interested to learn that insiders own shares in Tianqi Lithium Corporation. The insiders have a meaningful stake worth CN¥2.4b. Most would see this as a real positive. If you would like to explore the question of insider alignment, you can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, collectively holds 56% of Tianqi Lithium shares. This size of ownership gives investors from the general public some collective power. They can and probably do influence decisions on executive compensation, dividend policies and proposed business acquisitions.

Private Company Ownership

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 25%, 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:

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 Tianqi Lithium you should know about.

But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter 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.