State or government among Japan Post Holdings Co., Ltd.'s (TSE:6178) largest shareholders, saw gain in holdings value after stock jumped 4.6% last week

Key Insights

• Significant control over Japan Post Holdings by state or government implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• The top 6 shareholders own 51% of the company
• Institutions own 21% of Japan Post Holdings

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Every investor in Japan Post Holdings Co., Ltd. (TSE:6178) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. With 39% stake, state or government possess the maximum shares in the company. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Clearly, state or government benefitted the most after the company's market cap rose by JP¥180b last week.

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

Check out our latest analysis for Japan Post Holdings

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Japan Post 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.

Japan Post Holdings already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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 Japan Post Holdings' earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Japan Post Holdings. Ministry of Finance Japan is currently the largest shareholder, with 39% of shares outstanding. With 3.1% and 2.9% of the shares outstanding respectively, Japan Post Holdings, Employees' Shareholding Association and Nomura Asset Management Co., Ltd. are the second and third largest shareholders.

On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 6 shareholders, suggesting that the interests of the larger shareholders are balanced out to an extent by the smaller ones.

While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. 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 Japan Post Holdings

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. 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.

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 Japan Post Holdings Co., Ltd. insiders own under 1% of the company. As it is a large company, we'd only expect insiders to own a small percentage of it. But it's worth noting that they own JP¥140m worth of shares. It is always good to see at least some insider ownership, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 37% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. 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.

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.