OPT Machine Vision Tech Co., Ltd.'s (SHSE:688686) CEO Zhilin Lu is the most upbeat insider, and their holdings increased by 13% last week

Key Insights

• OPT Machine Vision Tech's significant insider ownership suggests inherent interests in company's expansion
• 59% of the business is held by the top 2 shareholders
• Institutions own 15% of OPT Machine Vision Tech

Every investor in OPT Machine Vision Tech Co., Ltd. (SHSE:688686) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are individual insiders with 67% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

As a result, insiders were the biggest beneficiaries of last week’s 13% gain.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about OPT Machine Vision Tech.

See our latest analysis for OPT Machine Vision Tech

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About OPT Machine Vision Tech?

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 OPT Machine Vision Tech. 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. 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 OPT Machine Vision Tech's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

OPT Machine Vision Tech is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is the CEO Zhilin Lu with 30% of shares outstanding. With 29% and 7.3% of the shares outstanding respectively, Shenglin Lu and Xueliang Xu are the second and third largest shareholders. Note that two of the top three shareholders are also Top Key Executive and Member of the Board of Directors, respectively, once again pointing to significant ownership by company insiders.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 2 shareholders collectively control more than half of the company's shares, implying that they have considerable power to influence the company's decisions.

While it makes sense to study institutional ownership data for a company, it also makes sense to study analyst sentiments to know which way the wind is blowing. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of OPT Machine Vision Tech

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.

It seems that insiders own more than half the OPT Machine Vision Tech Co., Ltd. stock. This gives them a lot of power. Insiders own CN¥6.3b worth of shares in the CN¥9.4b company. That's extraordinary! It is good to see this level of investment. You can check here to see if those insiders have been selling any of their shares.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 12% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. 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 5.8%, of the OPT Machine Vision Tech 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:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Be aware that OPT Machine Vision Tech is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , you should know about...

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

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.