Institutional investors have a lot riding on H.U. Group Holdings, Inc. (TSE:4544) with 60% ownership

Key Insights

• Significantly high institutional ownership implies H.U. Group Holdings' stock price is sensitive to their trading actions
• The top 14 shareholders own 51% of the company
• Analyst forecasts along with ownership data serve to give a strong idea about prospects for a business

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If you want to know who really controls H.U. Group Holdings, Inc. (TSE:4544), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. With 60% stake, institutions possess the maximum shares in the company. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

And things are looking up for institutional investors after the company gained JP¥16b in market cap last week. The gains from last week would have further boosted the one-year return to shareholders which currently stand at 47%.

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

View our latest analysis for H.U. Group Holdings

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About H.U. Group Holdings?

Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices.

We can see that H.U. Group Holdings 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. 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 H.U. Group Holdings' historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. H.U. Group Holdings is not owned by hedge funds. The company's largest shareholder is Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC, with ownership of 9.5%. Schroder Investment Management Limited is the second largest shareholder owning 7.9% of common stock, and Brandes Investment Partners, LP holds about 7.3% of the company stock.

A closer look at our ownership figures suggests that the top 14 shareholders have a combined ownership of 51% implying that no single shareholder has a majority.

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 H.U. Group Holdings

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. 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 less than 1% of H.U. Group Holdings, Inc.. It's a big company, so even a small proportional interest can create alignment between the board and shareholders. In this case insiders own JP¥435m worth of shares. It is good to see board members owning shares, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.

General Public Ownership

With a 40% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over H.U. Group Holdings. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand H.U. Group Holdings better, we need to consider many other factors. Be aware that H.U. Group Holdings 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.