Both retail investors who control a good portion of Sanrio Company, Ltd. (TSE:8136) along with institutions must be dismayed after last week's 8.7% decrease

Key Insights

• Significant control over Sanrio Company by retail investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• 51% of the business is held by the top 17 shareholders
• 36% of Sanrio Company is held by Institutions

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.

If you want to know who really controls Sanrio Company, Ltd. (TSE:8136), 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 retail investors with 41% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

Following a 8.7% decrease in the stock price last week, retail investors suffered the most losses, but institutions who own 36% stock also took a hit.

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

See our latest analysis for Sanrio Company

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Sanrio Company?

Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.

We can see that Sanrio Company does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. 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 Sanrio Company, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Sanrio Company. The company's largest shareholder is Kiyokawa Shoji Kk, with ownership of 8.3%. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 5.4% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 5.4% by the third-largest shareholder. Additionally, the company's CEO Tomokuni Tsuji directly holds 1.0% of the total shares outstanding.

A closer look at our ownership figures suggests that the top 17 shareholders have a combined ownership of 51% implying that no single shareholder has a majority.

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. 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 Sanrio Company

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. 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.

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.

We can see that insiders own shares in Sanrio Company, Ltd.. It is a very large company, and board members collectively own JP¥103b worth of shares (at current prices). we sometimes take an interest in whether they have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 41% stake in Sanrio Company. 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.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 12%, of the Sanrio Company stock. 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.

Public Company Ownership

Public companies currently own 4.7% of Sanrio Company 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. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for Sanrio Company that you should be aware of.

If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its 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.

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.