Retail investors in Aisin Corporation (TSE:7259) are its biggest bettors, and their bets paid off as stock gained 4.2% last week

Key Insights

• Significant control over Aisin by retail investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• 50% of the business is held by the top 10 shareholders
• 28% of Aisin is held by Institutions

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If you want to know who really controls Aisin Corporation (TSE:7259), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are retail investors with 37% 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 collectively scored the highest last week as the company hit JP¥1.8t market cap following a 4.2% gain in the stock.

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

See our latest analysis for Aisin

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Aisin?

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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Aisin. 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 Aisin's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Aisin. Toyota Motor Corporation is currently the largest shareholder, with 24% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 5.2% and 3.1%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.

We also observed that the top 10 shareholders account for more than half of the share register, with a few smaller shareholders to balance the interests of the larger ones to a certain extent.

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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Aisin

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. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

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.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own less than 1% of Aisin Corporation. As it is a large company, we'd only expect insiders to own a small percentage of it. But it's worth noting that they own JP¥1.1b worth of shares. It is always good to see at least some insider ownership, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 37% 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.

Public Company Ownership

Public companies currently own 33% of Aisin stock. 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:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Aisin better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 1 warning sign for Aisin that you should be aware of before investing here.

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.