China Conch Venture Holdings Limited's (HKG:586) market cap touched HK$12b last week, benefiting both retail investors who own 60% as well as institutions

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by retail investors in China Conch Venture Holdings indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• 38% of the business is held by the top 25 shareholders
• Institutional ownership in China Conch Venture Holdings is 18%

If you want to know who really controls China Conch Venture Holdings Limited (HKG:586), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are retail investors with 60% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

While retail investors were the group that reaped the most benefits after last week’s 4.7% price gain, institutions also received a 18% cut.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of China Conch Venture Holdings.

See our latest analysis for China Conch Venture Holdings

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About China Conch Venture Holdings?

Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices.

We can see that China Conch Venture Holdings 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 China Conch Venture Holdings, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in China Conch Venture Holdings. Conch Venture Capital Holdings (Zhuhai) Co., Ltd is currently the company's largest shareholder with 9.3% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 5.1% and 5.0%, of the shares outstanding, respectively. Additionally, the company's CEO Qinying Ji directly holds 2.0% of the total shares outstanding.

A deeper look at our ownership data shows that the top 25 shareholders collectively hold less than half of the register, suggesting a large group of small holders where no single shareholder has a majority.

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. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of China Conch Venture 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.

Shareholders would probably be interested to learn that insiders own shares in China Conch Venture Holdings Limited. This is a big company, so it is good to see this level of alignment. Insiders own HK$334m worth of shares (at current prices). Most would say this shows alignment of interests between shareholders and the board. Still, it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public -- including retail investors -- own 60% of China Conch Venture Holdings. This size of ownership gives investors from the general public some collective power. They can and probably do influence decisions on executive compensation, dividend policies and proposed business acquisitions.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 15%, of the China Conch Venture Holdings stock. It might be worth looking deeper into this. If related parties, such as insiders, have an interest in one of these private companies, that should be disclosed in the annual report. Private companies may also have a strategic interest in the company.

Public Company Ownership

We can see that public companies hold 5.0% of the China Conch Venture Holdings shares on issue. This may be a strategic interest and the two companies may have related business interests. It could be that they have de-merged. This holding is probably worth investigating further.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Be aware that China Conch Venture Holdings is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis , you should know about...

But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter 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.

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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.