Following recent decline, Sunwels Co.,Ltd.'s (TSE:9229) top shareholder CEO Ryotatsu Nawashiro sees holdings value drop by 12%

Key Insights

• SunwelsLtd's significant insider ownership suggests inherent interests in company's expansion
• 54% of the company is held by a single shareholder (Ryotatsu Nawashiro)
• Institutions own 21% of SunwelsLtd

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A look at the shareholders of Sunwels Co.,Ltd. (TSE:9229) can tell us which group is most powerful. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are individual insiders with 54% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

And last week, insiders endured the biggest losses as the stock fell by 12%.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of SunwelsLtd.

Check out our latest analysis for SunwelsLtd

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About SunwelsLtd?

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 SunwelsLtd 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 SunwelsLtd's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in SunwelsLtd. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is the CEO Ryotatsu Nawashiro with 54% of shares outstanding. With such a huge stake, we infer that they have significant control of the future of the company. It's usually considered a good sign when insiders own a significant number of shares in the company, and in this case, we're glad to see a company insider with such skin in the game. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 6.1% and 5.6%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.

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 is a little analyst coverage of the stock, but not much. So there is room for it to gain more coverage.

Insider Ownership Of SunwelsLtd

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. 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.

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 information suggests that insiders own more than half of Sunwels Co.,Ltd.. This gives them effective control of the company. That means they own JP¥9.0b worth of shares in the JP¥17b company. That's quite meaningful. Most would argue this is a positive, showing strong alignment with shareholders. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 25% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over SunwelsLtd. 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.

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. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for SunwelsLtd (of which 1 makes us a bit uncomfortable!) 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.