Painful week for individual investors invested in CyberAgent, Inc. (TSE:4751) after 3.6% drop, institutions also suffered losses

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by individual investors in CyberAgent indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• A total of 12 investors have a majority stake in the company with 51% ownership
• 18% of CyberAgent is held by insiders

A look at the shareholders of CyberAgent, Inc. (TSE:4751) can tell us which group is most powerful. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are individual investors with 42% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

While institutions who own 40% came under pressure after market cap dropped to JP¥535b last week,individual investors took the most losses.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of CyberAgent, beginning with the chart below.

View our latest analysis for CyberAgent

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About CyberAgent?

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.

CyberAgent 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. 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 CyberAgent'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 CyberAgent. The company's CEO Susumu Fujita is the largest shareholder with 17% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 8.9% and 4.7% of the stock.

A closer look at our ownership figures suggests that the top 12 shareholders have a combined ownership of 51% 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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of CyberAgent

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. 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.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of CyberAgent, Inc.. It is very interesting to see that insiders have a meaningful JP¥99b stake in this JP¥535b business. Most would say this shows a good degree of alignment with shareholders, especially in a company of this size. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 42% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over CyberAgent. 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:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand CyberAgent better, we need to consider many other factors. Take risks for example - CyberAgent has 1 warning sign we think you should be aware of.

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.