In this article, I’m going to take a look at LEAP Holdings Group Limited’s (HKG:1499) latest ownership structure, a non-fundamental factor which is important, but remains a less discussed subject among investors. Ownership structure has been found to have an impact on shareholder returns in both short- and long-term. If an activist institution invests the same amount of capital in a stock as a passive long-term pension fund, the implications are potentially different for key corporate financing decisions such as the use of excess cash or the source of financing. While these are more of a long-term investor’s concern, short-term investors may find the impact of institutional trading overwhelming enough to lose out on what could be a potential opportunity. Therefore, I will take a look at 1499’s shareholders in more detail.
View our latest analysis for LEAP Holdings Group
Institutional Ownership
Institutional investors are one of the largest group of market participants and their buy-sell decisions on a company’s stock can significantly impact prices, more so, when there are relatively small amounts of shares available on the market to trade. With hardly any institutional ownership, 1499 stock poses limited concern relating to the effect institutional block trades have on its stock price.Insider Ownership
An important group of shareholders are company insiders. Insider ownership has to do more with how the company is managed and less to do with the direct impact of the magnitude of shares trading on the market. 1499 insiders hold a significant stake of 76.53% in the company. This level of insider ownership has been found to have a negative impact on companies with consistently low PE ratios (underperformers), while it has been positive in the case of high PE ratio firms (outperformers). Another aspect of insider ownership is to learn about their recent transactions. Insiders buying company shares can be a positive indicator of future performance, but a selling decision can simply be driven by personal financial needs.General Public Ownership
The general public holds a substantial 20.04% stake in 1499, making it a highly popular stock among retail investors. This size of ownership gives retail investors collective power in deciding on major policy decisions such as executive compensation, appointment of directors and acquisitions of businesses.Private Company Ownership
Another group of owners that a potential investor in 1499 should consider are private companies, with a stake of 3.32%. While they invest more often due to strategic interests, an investment can also be driven by capital gains through share price appreciation. However, an ownership of this size may be relatively insignificant, meaning that these shareholders may not have the potential to influence 1499’s business strategy. Thus, investors not need worry too much about the consequences of these holdings.Next Steps:
With a low level of institutional ownership, investors in 1499 need not worry about non-fundamental factors such as ownership structure causing large impact on stock prices. However, ownership structure should not be the only determining factor when you’re building an investment thesis for 1499. Instead, you should be evaluating company-specific factors such as LEAP Holdings Group’s past track record and financial health. I highly recommend you to complete your research by taking a look at the following:
- Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for 1499’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for 1499’s outlook.
- Past Track Record: Has 1499 been consistently performing well irrespective of the ups and downs in the market? Go into more detail in the past performance analysis and take a look at the free visual representations of 1499’s historicals for more clarity.
- Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here.
To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.
The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.