Individual investors are Minieye Technology Co., Ltd's (HKG:2431) biggest owners and were hit after market cap dropped HK$1.4b

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by individual investors in Minieye Technology indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• A total of 10 investors have a majority stake in the company with 50% ownership
• Insiders have bought recently

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Every investor in Minieye Technology Co., Ltd (HKG:2431) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are individual investors with 35% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

While insiders who own 22% came under pressure after market cap dropped to HK$5.3b last week,individual investors took the most losses.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Minieye Technology.

View our latest analysis for Minieye Technology

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Minieye Technology?

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.

We can see that Minieye Technology does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of Minieye Technology, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Minieye Technology. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is the CEO Guoqing Liu with 8.4% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 8.0% and 6.5%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.

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.

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. There is some analyst coverage of the stock, but it could still become more well known, with time.

Insider Ownership Of Minieye Technology

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

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 a reasonable proportion of Minieye Technology Co., Ltd. Insiders own HK$1.1b worth of shares in the HK$5.3b company. It is great to see insiders so invested in the business. It might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying recently.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 35% stake in Minieye Technology. 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 Equity Ownership

Private equity firms hold a 13% stake in Minieye Technology. This suggests they can be influential in key policy decisions. Sometimes we see private equity stick around for the long term, but generally speaking they have a shorter investment horizon and -- as the name suggests -- don't invest in public companies much. After some time they may look to sell and redeploy capital elsewhere.

Private Company Ownership

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 15%, 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:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Minieye Technology better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for Minieye Technology that you should be aware of.

If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.

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.