Hindustan Copper Limited's (NSE:HINDCOPPER) largest shareholders are state or government who were rewarded as market cap surged ₹11b last week

Key Insights

• Significant control over Hindustan Copper by state or government implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• The largest shareholder of the company is India with a 66% stake
• 14% of Hindustan Copper is held by Institutions

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Hindustan Copper Limited (NSE:HINDCOPPER), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. We can see that state or government own the lion's share in the company with 66% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

As a result, state or government collectively scored the highest last week as the company hit ₹318b market cap following a 3.7% gain in the stock.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Hindustan Copper.

View our latest analysis for Hindustan Copper

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Hindustan Copper?

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.

We can see that Hindustan Copper 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. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of Hindustan Copper, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Hindustan Copper is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is India with 66% of shares outstanding. With such a huge stake in the ownership, we infer that they have significant control of the future of the company. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 6.1% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 2.4% 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. 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 Hindustan Copper

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.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own less than 1% of Hindustan Copper Limited. It's a big company, so even a small proportional interest can create alignment between the board and shareholders. In this case insiders own ₹90k worth of shares. Arguably, recent buying and selling is just as important to consider. You can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 20% stake in Hindustan Copper. 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:

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 1 warning sign for Hindustan Copper that you should be aware of.

Of course this may not be the best stock to buy. Therefore, you may wish to see our free collection of interesting prospects boasting favorable financials.

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.