What Type Of Shareholders Make Up Hankook & Company Co., Ltd.'s (KRX:000240) Share Registry?

A look at the shareholders of Hankook & Company Co., Ltd. (KRX:000240) can tell us which group is most powerful. Institutions often own shares in more established companies, while it's not unusual to see insiders own a fair bit of smaller companies. I quite like to see at least a little bit of insider ownership. As Charlie Munger said 'Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome.

Hankook has a market capitalization of ₩1.5t, so we would expect some institutional investors to have noticed the stock. Taking a look at our data on the ownership groups (below), it seems that institutions are noticeable on the share registry. We can zoom in on the different ownership groups, to learn more about Hankook.

See our latest analysis for Hankook

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Hankook?

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.

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

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Hankook. Because actions speak louder than words, we consider it a good sign when insiders own a significant stake in a company. In Hankook's case, its Chief Operating Officer, Hyun-Beom Cho, is the largest shareholder, holding 44% of shares outstanding. Hyun Shick Cho is the second largest shareholder owning 20% of common stock, and Hui Won Jo holds about 11% of the company stock. Interestingly, the second-largest shareholder, Hyun Shick Cho is also Chief Executive Officer, again, pointing towards strong insider ownership amongst the company's top shareholders.

A more detailed study of the shareholder registry showed us that 2 of the top shareholders have a considerable amount of ownership in the company, via their 63% stake.

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. 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 Hankook

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.

It seems that insiders own more than half the Hankook & Company Co., Ltd. stock. This gives them a lot of power. Insiders own ₩1.1t worth of shares in the ₩1.5t 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

The general public holds a 12% stake in Hankook. 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.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Hankook you should know about.

If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.

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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