COFCO Joycome Foods Limited's (HKG:1610) last week's 5.3% decline must have disappointed individual investors who have a significant stake

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by individual investors in COFCO Joycome Foods indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• The top 25 shareholders own 47% of the company
• Ownership research along with analyst forecasts data help provide a good understanding of opportunities in a stock

If you want to know who really controls COFCO Joycome Foods Limited (HKG:1610), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. We can see that individual investors own the lion's share in the company with 53% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

And last week, individual investors endured the biggest losses as the stock fell by 5.3%.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of COFCO Joycome Foods, beginning with the chart below.

Check out our latest analysis for COFCO Joycome Foods

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About COFCO Joycome Foods?

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 COFCO Joycome Foods does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This implies the analysts working for those institutions have looked at the stock and they like it. But just like anyone else, they could be wrong. 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 COFCO Joycome Foods' historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in COFCO Joycome Foods. Our data shows that COFCO Corporation is the largest shareholder with 40% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 2.3% and 1.1% of the stock.

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 COFCO Joycome Foods

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. The company management answer to the board and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board themselves.

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 data cannot confirm that board members are holding shares personally. We do not see this low level of ownership often, and it is possible our data is imperfect. But shareholders can click here to check if insiders have been selling stock.

General Public Ownership

The general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, collectively holds 53% of COFCO Joycome Foods shares. 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 40%, of the COFCO Joycome Foods stock. 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:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for COFCO Joycome Foods 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.