Retail investors in Oriental Watch Holdings Limited (HKG:398) are its biggest bettors, and their bets paid off as stock gained 10% last week

Key Insights

• Significant control over Oriental Watch Holdings by retail investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• A total of 16 investors have a majority stake in the company with 47% ownership
• Ownership research, combined with past performance data can help provide a good understanding of opportunities in a stock

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Oriental Watch Holdings Limited (HKG:398), 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 53% 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, retail investors were the biggest beneficiaries of last week’s 10% gain.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Oriental Watch Holdings.

See our latest analysis for Oriental Watch Holdings

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Oriental Watch 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.

We can see that Oriental Watch Holdings 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. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Oriental Watch Holdings' earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

It would appear that 6.0% of Oriental Watch Holdings shares are controlled by hedge funds. That catches my attention because hedge funds sometimes try to influence management, or bring about changes that will create near term value for shareholders. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Datsun Holdings Limited with 26% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 6.0% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 5.7% by the third-largest shareholder. Additionally, the company's CEO Him Kit Yeung directly holds 0.8% of the total shares outstanding.

On studying our ownership data, we found that 16 of the top shareholders collectively own less than 50% of the share register, implying that no single individual has a majority interest.

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. As far as we can tell there isn't analyst coverage of the company, so it is probably flying under the radar.

Insider Ownership Of Oriental Watch Holdings

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. 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.

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.

We can see that insiders own shares in Oriental Watch Holdings Limited. It has a market capitalization of just HK$1.7b, and insiders have HK$20m worth of shares, in their own names. It is good to see some investment by insiders, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.

General Public Ownership

The general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, collectively holds 53% of Oriental Watch Holdings 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 32%, of the Oriental Watch 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.

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. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Oriental Watch Holdings you should know about.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies.

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.