Retail investors who hold 46% of Matsui Construction Co., Ltd. (TSE:1810) gained 13%, institutions profited as well

Key Insights

• Matsui Construction's significant retail investors ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• 51% of the business is held by the top 12 shareholders
• 23% of Matsui Construction is held by Institutions

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To get a sense of who is truly in control of Matsui Construction Co., Ltd. (TSE:1810), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. We can see that retail investors own the lion's share in the company with 46% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

While retail investors were the group that reaped the most benefits after last week’s 13% price gain, institutions also received a 23% cut.

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

View our latest analysis for Matsui Construction

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Matsui Construction?

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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Matsui Construction. 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. 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 Matsui Construction's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Matsui Construction. The company's largest shareholder is Hikari Asset Management, with ownership of 7.6%. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 7.5% and 7.2%, of the shares outstanding, respectively. Additionally, the company's CEO Matsui Takahiro directly holds 1.0% of the total shares outstanding.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 12 have the combined ownership of 51% in the company, suggesting that no single shareholder has significant control over the company.

Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. 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 Matsui Construction

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. 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.

Shareholders would probably be interested to learn that insiders own shares in Matsui Construction Co., Ltd.. In their own names, insiders own JP¥584m worth of stock in the JP¥44b company. Some would say this shows alignment of interests between shareholders and the board. But it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 46% 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 Equity Ownership

Private equity firms hold a 7.6% stake in Matsui Construction. This suggests they can be influential in key policy decisions. Some might like this, because private equity are sometimes activists who hold management accountable. But other times, private equity is selling out, having taking the company public.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 3.3%, of the Matsui Construction stock. It's hard to draw any conclusions from this fact alone, so its worth looking into who owns those private companies. Sometimes insiders or other related parties have an interest in shares in a public company through a separate private company.

Public Company Ownership

We can see that public companies hold 7.5% of the Matsui Construction shares on issue. It's hard to say for sure but this suggests they have entwined business interests. This might be a strategic stake, so it's worth watching this space for changes in ownership.

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. Be aware that Matsui Construction is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those is potentially serious...

If you would prefer check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, backed by strong financial data.

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.