While institutions own 23% of Suntory Beverage & Food Limited (TSE:2587), private companies are its largest shareholders with 59% ownership

Key Insights

• Significant control over Suntory Beverage & Food by private companies implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• Kotobuki Realty Co., Ltd. owns 59% of the company
• 23% of Suntory Beverage & Food is held by Institutions

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Suntory Beverage & Food Limited (TSE:2587), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 59% to be precise, is private companies. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

And institutions on the other hand have a 23% ownership in the company. Institutions often own shares in more established companies, while it's not unusual to see insiders own a fair bit of smaller companies.

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

View our latest analysis for Suntory Beverage & Food

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Suntory Beverage & Food?

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 Suntory Beverage & Food does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. 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 Suntory Beverage & Food's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Suntory Beverage & Food is not owned by hedge funds. The company's largest shareholder is Kotobuki Realty Co., Ltd., with ownership of 59%. This implies that they have majority interest control of the future of the company. With 3.1% and 1.9% of the shares outstanding respectively, Capital Research and Management Company and BlackRock, Inc. are the second and third largest shareholders.

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 a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future.

Insider Ownership Of Suntory Beverage & Food

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. The company management answer to the board and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board themselves.

I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own less than 1% of Suntory Beverage & Food Limited. We do note, however, it is possible insiders have an indirect interest through a private company or other corporate structure. Being so large, we would not expect insiders to own a large proportion of the stock. Collectively, they own JP¥37m of stock. In this sort of situation, it can be more interesting to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 17% stake in Suntory Beverage & Food. 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 59%, of the Suntory Beverage & Food stock. 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:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Suntory Beverage & Food better, we need to consider many other factors.

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.

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

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.