GENOVA, Inc. (TSE:9341) President Tomoki Hirase's holdings dropped 10% in value as a result of the recent pullback

Key Insights

• GENOVA's significant insider ownership suggests inherent interests in company's expansion
• A total of 2 investors have a majority stake in the company with 52% ownership
• Institutions own 17% of GENOVA

If you want to know who really controls GENOVA, Inc. (TSE:9341), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are individual insiders with 56% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

As a result, insiders as a group endured the highest losses after market cap fell by JP¥3.5b.

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

Check out our latest analysis for GENOVA

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About GENOVA?

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.

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

Hedge funds don't have many shares in GENOVA. From our data, we infer that the largest shareholder is Tomoki Hirase (who also holds the title of President) with 49% of shares outstanding. Its 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 play the role of a key stakeholder. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 3.4% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 2.5% by the third-largest shareholder.

To make our study more interesting, we found that the top 2 shareholders have a majority ownership in the company, meaning that they are powerful enough to influence the decisions of the company.

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. We're not picking up on any analyst coverage of the stock at the moment, so the company is unlikely to be widely held.

Insider Ownership Of GENOVA

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 information suggests that insiders own more than half of GENOVA, Inc.. This gives them effective control of the company. Given it has a market cap of JP¥31b, that means they have JP¥17b worth of shares. 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

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 24% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. 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 GENOVA better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for GENOVA that you should be aware of.

If you would prefer check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, backed by strong financial data.

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.