Insiders were the biggest winners as Workman Co.,Ltd.'s (TSE:7564) market cap grew by JP¥22b last week

Key Insights

• Significant insider control over WorkmanLtd implies vested interests in company growth
• The top 2 shareholders own 52% of the company
• Using data from analyst forecasts alongside ownership research, one can better assess the future performance of a company

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Workman Co.,Ltd. (TSE:7564), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are individual insiders with 61% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

As a result, insiders were the biggest beneficiaries of last week’s 6.4% gain.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of WorkmanLtd.

See our latest analysis for WorkmanLtd

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About WorkmanLtd?

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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in WorkmanLtd. 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. 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 WorkmanLtd, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in WorkmanLtd. Hiromasa Tsuchiya is currently the largest shareholder, with 42% of shares outstanding. With 9.7% and 7.3% of the shares outstanding respectively, CAINZ CORPORATION and Kayo Yoshida are the second and third largest shareholders.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 2 shareholders collectively control more than half of the company's shares, implying that they have considerable power to influence the company's decisions.

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. 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 WorkmanLtd

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. 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 that insiders own more than half the Workman Co.,Ltd. stock. This gives them a lot of power. Insiders own JP¥216b worth of shares in the JP¥357b company. That's extraordinary! It is good to see this level of investment. You can check here to see if those insiders have been selling any of their shares.

General Public Ownership

With a 19% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over WorkmanLtd. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Private Company Ownership

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 14%, of the company's shares. It's hard to draw any conclusions from this fact alone, so its worth looking into who owns those private companies. Sometimes insiders or other related parties have an interest in shares in a public company through a separate private company.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand WorkmanLtd better, we need to consider many other factors.

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.

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.