Both retail investors who control a good portion of Belc CO., LTD. (TSE:9974) along with institutions must be dismayed after last week's 5.4% decrease

Key Insights

• Belc's significant retail investors ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• The top 6 shareholders own 50% of the company
• Institutions own 25% of Belc

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A look at the shareholders of Belc CO., LTD. (TSE:9974) can tell us which group is most powerful. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are retail investors with 28% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Following a 5.4% decrease in the stock price last week, retail investors suffered the most losses, but institutions who own 25% stock also took a hit.

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

View our latest analysis for Belc

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Belc?

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.

We can see that Belc 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. 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 Belc's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Belc. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Aeon Co., Ltd. with 15% of shares outstanding. With 10% and 8.9% of the shares outstanding respectively, FMR LLC and IH Corporation are the second and third largest shareholders. Additionally, the company's CEO Issei Harashima directly holds 1.8% of the total shares outstanding.

We also observed that the top 6 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.

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

Insider Ownership Of Belc

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. 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.

We can report that insiders do own shares in Belc CO., LTD.. It has a market capitalization of just JP¥138b, and insiders have JP¥6.0b worth of shares, in their own names. It is good to see some investment by insiders, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 28% stake in Belc. This size of ownership, while considerable, may not be enough to change company policy if the decision is not in sync with other large shareholders.

Private Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 16%, of the shares on issue. 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 24% of the Belc shares on issue. We can't be certain but it is quite possible this is a strategic stake. The businesses may be similar, or work together.

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 access this interactive graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow, for free .

If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its 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.