While individual investors own 26% of Sharp Corporation (TSE:6753), public companies are its largest shareholders with 44% ownership

Key Insights

• Significant control over Sharp by public companies implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• A total of 3 investors have a majority stake in the company with 57% ownership
• Institutional ownership in Sharp is 13%

If you want to know who really controls Sharp Corporation (TSE:6753), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. With 44% stake, public companies possess the maximum shares in the company. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Meanwhile, individual investors make up 26% of the company’s shareholders.

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

View our latest analysis for Sharp

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Sharp?

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 Sharp 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 Sharp, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Sharp is not owned by hedge funds. Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. is currently the company's largest shareholder with 34% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 13% and 10.0%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.

To make our study more interesting, we found that the top 3 shareholders have a majority ownership in the company, meaning that they are powerful enough to influence the decisions of the company.

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. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of Sharp

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.

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 some shares in Sharp Corporation. The insiders have a meaningful stake worth JP¥24b. Most would see this as a real positive. If you would like to explore the question of insider alignment, you can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 26% 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

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 13%, of the company's shares. 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.

Public Company Ownership

We can see that public companies hold 44% of the Sharp shares on issue. 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 Sharp better, we need to consider many other factors. Case in point: We've spotted 1 warning sign for Sharp you should be aware of.

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.