individual investors who own 44% along with institutions invested in BrainPad Inc. (TSE:3655) saw increase in their holdings value last week

Key Insights

• Significant control over BrainPad by individual investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• The top 10 shareholders own 50% of the company
• Insiders own 24% of BrainPad

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If you want to know who really controls BrainPad Inc. (TSE:3655), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. With 44% stake, individual investors possess the maximum shares in the company. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

Following a 12% increase in the stock price last week, individual investors profited the most, but institutions who own 28% stock also stood to gain from the increase.

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

View our latest analysis for BrainPad

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About BrainPad?

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.

BrainPad 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 BrainPad's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in BrainPad. Because actions speak louder than words, we consider it a good sign when insiders own a significant stake in a company. In BrainPad's case, its Top Key Executive, Takashi Kusano Takahashi, is the largest shareholder, holding 13% of shares outstanding. With 10% and 8.1% of the shares outstanding respectively, Asset Management One Co., Ltd. and Seinosuke Sato are the second and third largest shareholders. Interestingly, the third-largest shareholder, Seinosuke Sato is also a Member of the Board of Directors, again, indicating strong insider ownership amongst the company's top shareholders. Furthermore, CEO Tomohiro Sekiguchi is the owner of 0.9% of the company's shares.

We also observed that the top 10 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.

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 is a little analyst coverage of the stock, but not much. So there is room for it to gain more coverage.

Insider Ownership Of BrainPad

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

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.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of BrainPad Inc.. It has a market capitalization of just JP¥27b, and insiders have JP¥6.5b worth of shares in their own names. This may suggest that the founders still own a lot of shares. You can click here to see if they have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 44% stake in BrainPad. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Public Company Ownership

We can see that public companies hold 3.2% of the BrainPad shares on issue. 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:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand BrainPad better, we need to consider many other factors. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for BrainPad you should know about.

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.