While institutions invested in TOMY Company, Ltd. (TSE:7867) benefited from last week's 4.1% gain, retail investors stood to gain the most

Key Insights

• TOMY Company's significant retail investors ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• A total of 25 investors have a majority stake in the company with 40% ownership
• Institutional ownership in TOMY Company is 28%

If you want to know who really controls TOMY Company, Ltd. (TSE:7867), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 59% to be precise, is retail investors. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Following a 4.1% increase in the stock price last week, retail investors profited the most, but institutions who own 28% stock also stood to gain from the increase.

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

Check out our latest analysis for TOMY Company

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About TOMY Company?

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.

TOMY Company already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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 TOMY Company, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in TOMY Company. Our data shows that Tsukasa Fudosan K.K. is the largest shareholder with 7.3% of shares outstanding. With 5.6% and 3.4% of the shares outstanding respectively, Mizuho Financial Group, Inc., Asset Management Arm and The Vanguard Group, Inc. are the second and third largest shareholders. Additionally, the company's CEO Kantaro Tomiyama directly holds 3.1% of the total shares outstanding.

On studying our ownership data, we found that 25 of the top shareholders collectively own less than 50% of the share register, implying that no single individual has a majority interest.

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 TOMY Company

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 some shares in TOMY Company, Ltd.. It is a pretty big company, so it is generally a positive to see some potentially meaningful alignment. In this case, they own around JP¥13b worth of shares (at current prices). 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, mostly comprising of individual investors, collectively holds 59% of TOMY Company shares. This level of ownership gives investors from the wider public some power to sway key policy decisions such as board composition, executive compensation, and the dividend payout ratio.

Private Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 7.3%, of the shares on issue. It might be worth looking deeper into this. If related parties, such as insiders, have an interest in one of these private companies, that should be disclosed in the annual report. Private companies may also have a strategic interest in the company.

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.

I like to dive deeper into how a company has performed in the past. You can find historic revenue and earnings in this detailed graph.

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.