Institutional investors control 38% of Toyo Tanso Co., Ltd. (TSE:5310) and were rewarded last week after stock increased 6.8%

Key Insights

• Institutions' substantial holdings in Toyo Tanso implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price
• The top 12 shareholders own 52% of the company
• Insider ownership in Toyo Tanso is 19%

If you want to know who really controls Toyo Tanso Co., Ltd. (TSE:5310), 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 institutions with 38% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

And as as result, institutional investors reaped the most rewards after the company's stock price gained 6.8% last week. The one-year return on investment is currently 45% and last week's gain would have been more than welcomed.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Toyo Tanso, beginning with the chart below.

View our latest analysis for Toyo Tanso

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Toyo Tanso?

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.

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

Toyo Tanso is not owned by hedge funds. The company's largest shareholder is Kondo Tomoko, with ownership of 7.4%. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 5.8% and 5.6%, of the shares outstanding, respectively. Naotaka Kondo, who is the second-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Chief Executive Officer.

Looking at the shareholder registry, we can see that 52% of the ownership is controlled by the top 12 shareholders, meaning that no single shareholder has a majority interest in the ownership.

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 Toyo Tanso

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.

Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of Toyo Tanso Co., Ltd.. Insiders have a JP¥29b stake in this JP¥149b business. It is great to see insiders so invested in the business. It might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying recently.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 35% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 8.5%, of the Toyo Tanso stock. Private companies may be related parties. Sometimes insiders have an interest in a public company through a holding in a private company, rather than in their own capacity as an individual. While it's hard to draw any broad stroke conclusions, it is worth noting as an area for further research.

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 Toyo Tanso is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , you should know about...

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.