Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd.'s (TSE:8801) top owners are retail investors with 50% stake, while 48% is held by institutions

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by retail investors in Mitsui Fudosan indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• The top 25 shareholders own 41% of the company
• 48% of Mitsui Fudosan is held by Institutions

Every investor in Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd. (TSE:8801) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 50% to be precise, is retail investors. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Meanwhile, institutions make up 48% of the company’s shareholders. Institutions often own shares in more established companies, while it's not unusual to see insiders own a fair bit of smaller companies.

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

View our latest analysis for Mitsui Fudosan

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Mitsui Fudosan?

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 Mitsui Fudosan 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. 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 Mitsui Fudosan, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Mitsui Fudosan. The company's largest shareholder is BlackRock, Inc., with ownership of 8.6%. Nomura Asset Management Co., Ltd. is the second largest shareholder owning 4.7% of common stock, and The Vanguard Group, Inc. holds about 4.1% of the company stock.

On studying our ownership data, we found that 25 of the top shareholders collectively own less than 50% of the share register, implying that no single individual has a majority interest.

Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Mitsui Fudosan

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 data suggests that insiders own under 1% of Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd. in their own names. Being so large, we would not expect insiders to own a large proportion of the stock. Collectively, they own JP¥5.1b of stock. 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, mostly comprising of individual investors, collectively holds 50% of Mitsui Fudosan shares. With this amount of ownership, retail investors can collectively play a role in decisions that affect shareholder returns, such as dividend policies and the appointment of directors. They can also exercise the power to vote on acquisitions or mergers that may not improve profitability.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Mitsui Fudosan better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 2 warning signs for Mitsui Fudosan (1 doesn't sit too well with us) that you should be aware of.

But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter future.

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.