With 47% institutional ownership, MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings, Inc. (TSE:8725) is a favorite amongst the big guns

Key Insights

• Significantly high institutional ownership implies MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings' stock price is sensitive to their trading actions
• A total of 25 investors have a majority stake in the company with 50% ownership
• Using data from analyst forecasts alongside ownership research, one can better assess the future performance of a company

If you want to know who really controls MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings, Inc. (TSE:8725), 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 institutions with 47% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Because institutional owners have a huge pool of resources and liquidity, their investing decisions tend to carry a great deal of weight, especially with individual investors. Hence, having a considerable amount of institutional money invested in a company is often regarded as a desirable trait.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings.

Check out our latest analysis for MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings?

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 MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. 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 MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings' historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Nissay Asset Management Corporation with 7.5% of shares outstanding. Toyota Motor Corporation is the second largest shareholder owning 7.0% of common stock, and BlackRock, Inc. holds about 6.7% of the company stock.

A closer look at our ownership figures suggests that the top 25 shareholders have a combined ownership of 50% implying that no single shareholder has a majority.

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 MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

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 MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings, Inc.. 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¥3.1b worth of shares. Arguably recent buying and selling is just as important to consider. You can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 46% 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.

Public Company Ownership

We can see that public companies hold 7.0% of the MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings shares on issue. This may be a strategic interest and the two companies may have related business interests. It could be that they have de-merged. This holding is probably worth investigating further.

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. To that end, you should be aware of the 1 warning sign we've spotted with MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings .

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.