What You Need To Know About Pipeline Engineering Holdings Limited's (HKG:1865) Investor Composition

If you want to know who really controls Pipeline Engineering Holdings Limited (HKG:1865), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. Institutions often own shares in more established companies, while it's not unusual to see insiders own a fair bit of smaller companies. I generally like to see some degree of insider ownership, even if only a little. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb said, 'Don’t tell me what you think, tell me what you have in your portfolio.

Pipeline Engineering Holdings is a smaller company with a market capitalization of HK$1.2b, so it may still be flying under the radar of many institutional investors. In the chart below, we can see that institutions don't own shares in the company. Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Pipeline Engineering Holdings.

See our latest analysis for Pipeline Engineering Holdings

What Does The Lack Of Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Pipeline Engineering Holdings?

We don't tend to see institutional investors holding stock of companies that are very risky, thinly traded, or very small. Though we do sometimes see large companies without institutions on the register, it's not particularly common.

There are multiple explanations for why institutions don't own a stock. The most common is that the company is too small relative to funds under management, so the institution does not bother to look closely at the company. On the other hand, it's always possible that professional investors are avoiding a company because they don't think it's the best place for their money. Pipeline Engineering Holdings' earnings and revenue track record (below) may not be compelling to institutional investors -- or they simply might not have looked at the business closely.

Pipeline Engineering Holdings is not owned by hedge funds. The company's CEO Guan Wah Shi is the largest shareholder with 48% of shares outstanding.

Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. As far I can tell there isn't analyst coverage of the company, so it is probably flying under the radar.

Insider Ownership Of Pipeline Engineering Holdings

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. 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.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of Pipeline Engineering Holdings Limited. It has a market capitalization of just HK$1.2b, and insiders have HK$585m worth of shares in their own names. 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 mostly retail investors, collectively hold 52% of Pipeline Engineering Holdings shares. This level of ownership gives retail investors the power to sway key policy decisions such as board composition, executive compensation, and the dividend payout ratio.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Pipeline Engineering Holdings better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 4 warning signs for Pipeline Engineering Holdings (1 is a bit concerning!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

Of course this may not be the best stock to buy. Therefore, you may wish to see our free collection of interesting prospects boasting favorable financials.

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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