Retail investors invested in CIFI Ever Sunshine Services Group Limited (HKG:1995) copped the brunt of last week's HK$330m market cap decline

Key Insights

• CIFI Ever Sunshine Services Group's significant retail investors ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• The top 3 shareholders own 51% of the company
• Insiders have bought recently

To get a sense of who is truly in control of CIFI Ever Sunshine Services Group Limited (HKG:1995), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are retail investors with 32% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

And last week, retail investors endured the biggest losses as the stock fell by 12%.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of CIFI Ever Sunshine Services Group, beginning with the chart below.

View our latest analysis for CIFI Ever Sunshine Services Group

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About CIFI Ever Sunshine Services Group?

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.

CIFI Ever Sunshine Services Group already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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. 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 CIFI Ever Sunshine Services Group's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

CIFI Ever Sunshine Services Group is not owned by hedge funds. CIFI Holdings (Group) Co. Ltd. is currently the company's largest shareholder with 23% of shares outstanding. Elite Force Development Limited is the second largest shareholder owning 21% of common stock, and Feng Lin holds about 6.7% of the company stock. Additionally, the company's CEO Hongbin Zhou directly holds 3.4% of the total shares outstanding.

A more detailed study of the shareholder registry showed us that 3 of the top shareholders have a considerable amount of ownership in the company, via their 51% stake.

While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of CIFI Ever Sunshine Services Group

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

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 most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of CIFI Ever Sunshine Services Group Limited. Insiders own HK$241m worth of shares in the HK$2.3b company. 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-- including retail investors -- own 32% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. 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.

Private Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 21%, of the shares on issue. Private companies may be related parties. Sometimes insiders have an interest in a public company through a holding in a private company, rather than in their own capacity as an individual. While it's hard to draw any broad stroke conclusions, it is worth noting as an area for further research.

Public Company Ownership

We can see that public companies hold 23% of the CIFI Ever Sunshine Services Group 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:

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. For instance, we've identified 3 warning signs for CIFI Ever Sunshine Services Group (1 is potentially serious) that you should be aware of.

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.