Institutional investors may adopt severe steps after Churchill China plc's (LON:CHH) latest 10% drop adds to a year losses

Key Insights

• Significantly high institutional ownership implies Churchill China's stock price is sensitive to their trading actions
• The top 5 shareholders own 50% of the company
• 19% of Churchill China is held by insiders

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Churchill China plc (LON:CHH), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 68% to be precise, is institutions. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

And institutional investors saw their holdings value drop by 10% last week. The recent loss, which adds to a one-year loss of 11% for stockholders, may not sit well with this group of investors. Institutions or "liquidity providers" control large sums of money and therefore, these types of investors usually have a lot of influence over stock price movements. As a result, if the decline continues, institutional investors may be pressured to sell Churchill China which might hurt individual investors.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Churchill China, beginning with the chart below.

Check out our latest analysis for Churchill China

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Churchill China?

Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Churchill China. 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. 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 Churchill China's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Churchill China. Because actions speak louder than words, we consider it a good sign when insiders own a significant stake in a company. In Churchill China's case, its Head of Marketing, James Roper, is the largest shareholder, holding 16% of shares outstanding. Investec Wealth & Investment Limited is the second largest shareholder owning 11% of common stock, and Charles Stanley & Co. Ltd, Asset Management Arm holds about 9.6% of the company stock.

To make our study more interesting, we found that the top 5 shareholders control more than half of the company which implies that this group has considerable sway over the company's decision-making.

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 is a little analyst coverage of the stock, but not much. So there is room for it to gain more coverage.

Insider Ownership Of Churchill China

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.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of Churchill China plc. It has a market capitalization of just UK£118m, and insiders have UK£23m worth of shares in their own names. This may suggest that the founders still own a lot of shares. You can click here to see if they have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 13% stake in Churchill China. 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.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Churchill China better, we need to consider many other factors. Take risks for example - Churchill China has 3 warning signs (and 1 which makes us a bit uncomfortable) we think you should know about.

If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its 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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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.