Individual investors who have a significant stake must be disappointed along with institutions after Mitani Sekisan Co., Ltd.'s (TSE:5273) market cap dropped by JP¥8.8b

Key Insights

• Significant control over Mitani Sekisan by individual investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• A total of 7 investors have a majority stake in the company with 50% ownership
• Insiders own 10% of Mitani Sekisan

We've found 21 US stocks that are forecast to pay a dividend yield of over 6% next year. See the full list for free.

Every investor in Mitani Sekisan Co., Ltd. (TSE:5273) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are individual investors with 37% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Following a 5.8% decrease in the stock price last week, individual investors suffered the most losses, but institutions who own 21% stock also took a hit.

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

View our latest analysis for Mitani Sekisan

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Mitani Sekisan?

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.

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

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Mitani Sekisan. Our data shows that Mitani Scholarship Foundation is the largest shareholder with 12% of shares outstanding. Mitani Corporation is the second largest shareholder owning 10% of common stock, and Mitani Shinichi scholarship association holds about 8.1% of the company stock. In addition, we found that Shinji Mitani, the CEO has 1.1% of the shares allocated to their name.

We also observed that the top 7 shareholders account for more than half of the share register, with a few smaller shareholders to balance the interests of the larger ones to a certain extent.

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. Our information suggests that there isn't any analyst coverage of the stock, so it is probably little known.

Insider Ownership Of Mitani Sekisan

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of Mitani Sekisan Co., Ltd.. Insiders own JP¥14b worth of shares in the JP¥143b company. It is great to see insiders so invested in the business. It might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying recently.

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.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 7.9%, of the Mitani Sekisan stock. It might be worth looking deeper into this. If related parties, such as insiders, have an interest in one of these private companies, that should be disclosed in the annual report. Private companies may also have a strategic interest in the company.

Public Company Ownership

Public companies currently own 16% of Mitani Sekisan stock. 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.

I always like to check for a history of revenue growth. You can too, by accessing this free chart of historic revenue and earnings in this detailed graph.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies.

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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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.