While individual investors own 35% of Grandblue Environment Co., Ltd. (SHSE:600323), private companies are its largest shareholders with 46% ownership

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by private companies in Grandblue Environment indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• The top 4 shareholders own 51% of the company
• 19% of Grandblue Environment is held by Institutions

If you want to know who really controls Grandblue Environment Co., Ltd. (SHSE:600323), 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 46% to be precise, is private companies. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Individual investors, on the other hand, account for 35% of the company's stockholders.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Grandblue Environment.

See our latest analysis for Grandblue Environment

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Grandblue Environment?

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 Grandblue Environment. 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 Grandblue Environment's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Grandblue Environment. The company's largest shareholder is Guangdong Nanhai Holding Group Co., Ltd., with ownership of 33%. State Development & Investment Corp., Ltd. is the second largest shareholder owning 8.1% of common stock, and Foshan Nanhai Urban Construction and Investment Co., Ltd. holds about 5.0% of the company stock.

Our research also brought to light the fact that roughly 51% of the company is controlled by the top 4 shareholders suggesting that these owners wield significant influence on the business.

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 Grandblue Environment

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.

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own less than 1% of Grandblue Environment Co., Ltd.. However, it's possible that insiders might have an indirect interest through a more complex structure. It is a pretty big company, so it would be possible for board members to own a meaningful interest in the company, without owning much of a proportional interest. In this case, they own around CN¥2.2m worth of shares (at current prices). It is good to see board members owning shares, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 35% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 46%, of the Grandblue Environment 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:

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. Take risks for example - Grandblue Environment has 2 warning signs (and 1 which shouldn't be ignored) we think 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.