Café de Coral Holdings Limited's (HKG:341) Senior Key Executive Tak-Shing Lo is the most upbeat insider, and their holdings increased by 10% last week

Key Insights

• Significant insider control over Café de Coral Holdings implies vested interests in company growth
• A total of 7 investors have a majority stake in the company with 51% ownership
• 18% of Café de Coral Holdings is held by Institutions

If you want to know who really controls Café de Coral Holdings Limited (HKG:341), 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 individual insiders with 45% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

As a result, insiders were the biggest beneficiaries of last week’s 10% gain.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Café de Coral Holdings.

Check out our latest analysis for Café de Coral Holdings

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Café de Coral Holdings?

Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Café de Coral Holdings. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see Café de Coral Holdings' historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Café de Coral Holdings. Because actions speak louder than words, we consider it a good sign when insiders own a significant stake in a company. In Café de Coral Holdings' case, its Senior Key Executive, Tak-Shing Lo, is the largest shareholder, holding 16% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 12% and 11% of the stock. Interestingly, the third-largest shareholder, Hoi Kwong Lo is also a Chairman of the Board, again, indicating strong insider ownership amongst the company's top shareholders.

On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 7 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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Café de Coral Holdings

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

Our information suggests that insiders maintain a significant holding in Café de Coral Holdings Limited. Insiders have a HK$2.3b stake in this HK$5.2b business. 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 37% stake in Café de Coral Holdings. 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 Café de Coral Holdings better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 1 warning sign for Café de Coral Holdings that you should be aware of before investing here.

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.