China XLX Fertiliser Ltd.'s (HKG:1866) last week's 5.4% decline must have disappointed individual investors who have a significant stake

Key Insights

• Significant control over China XLX Fertiliser by individual investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• 51% of the business is held by the top 4 shareholders
• Recent sales by insiders

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If you want to know who really controls China XLX Fertiliser Ltd. (HKG:1866), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. With 47% stake, individual investors possess the maximum shares in the company. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

And following last week's 5.4% decline in share price, individual investors suffered the most losses.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of China XLX Fertiliser, beginning with the chart below.

Check out our latest analysis for China XLX Fertiliser

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About China XLX Fertiliser?

Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index.

Since institutions own only a small portion of China XLX Fertiliser, many may not have spent much time considering the stock. But it's clear that some have; and they liked it enough to buy in. If the business gets stronger from here, we could see a situation where more institutions are keen to buy. It is not uncommon to see a big share price rise if multiple institutional investors are trying to buy into a stock at the same time. So check out the historic earnings trajectory, below, but keep in mind it's the future that counts most.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in China XLX Fertiliser. Pioneer Top Holdings Limited is currently the largest shareholder, with 30% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 17% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 2.4% by the third-largest shareholder. Yunhua Yan, who is the second-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Senior Key Executive.

To make our study more interesting, we found that the top 4 shareholders control more than half of the company which implies that this group has considerable sway over the company's decision-making.

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. There is some analyst coverage of the stock, but it could still become more well known, with time.

Insider Ownership Of China XLX Fertiliser

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.

I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of China XLX Fertiliser Ltd.. It is very interesting to see that insiders have a meaningful HK$1.9b stake in this HK$11b business. Most would be pleased to see the board is investing alongside them. You may wish to access this free chart showing recent trading by insiders.

General Public Ownership

With a 47% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over China XLX Fertiliser. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Private Company Ownership

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 32%, of the company's shares. 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:

I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Case in point: We've spotted 4 warning signs for China XLX Fertiliser you should be aware of, and 1 of them is a bit unpleasant.

If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.

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.