Wasion Holdings Limited's (HKG:3393) Top Key Executive Wei Ji is the most upbeat insider, and their holdings increased by 12% last week

Key Insights

• Wasion Holdings' significant insider ownership suggests inherent interests in company's expansion
• 54% of the company is held by a single shareholder (Wei Ji)
• 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 Wasion Holdings Limited (HKG:3393), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 54% to be precise, is individual insiders. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Clearly, insiders benefitted the most after the company's market cap rose by HK$438m last week.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Wasion Holdings.

View our latest analysis for Wasion Holdings

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Wasion Holdings?

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 Wasion Holdings, 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. We sometimes see a rising share price when a few big institutions want to buy a certain stock at the same time. The history of earnings and revenue, which you can see below, could be helpful in considering if more institutional investors will want the stock. Of course, there are plenty of other factors to consider, too.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Wasion Holdings. From our data, we infer that the largest shareholder is Wei Ji (who also holds the title of Top Key Executive) with 54% of shares outstanding. Its usually considered a good sign when insiders own a significant number of shares in the company, and in this case, we're glad to see a company insider play the role of a key stakeholder. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 1.5% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 0.9% by the third-largest shareholder.

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

Insider Ownership Of Wasion 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. 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.

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.

Our information suggests that insiders own more than half of Wasion Holdings Limited. This gives them effective control of the company. Given it has a market cap of HK$4.2b, that means they have HK$2.3b worth of shares. Most would argue this is a positive, showing strong alignment with shareholders. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 41% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Wasion 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 Wasion Holdings better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for Wasion Holdings that you should be aware of.

If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its 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.