The recent 14% gain must have brightened CEO Geun-Han Kim's week, Dongsin Engineering & Construction's (KOSDAQ:025950) most bullish insider

Key Insights

• Insiders appear to have a vested interest in Dongsin Engineering & Construction's growth, as seen by their sizeable ownership
• 69% of the business is held by the top 2 shareholders
• Using data from company's past performance alongside ownership research, one can better assess the future performance of a company

If you want to know who really controls Dongsin Engineering & Construction (KOSDAQ:025950), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. We can see that individual insiders own the lion's share in the company with 69% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

As a result, insiders were the biggest beneficiaries of last week’s 14% gain.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Dongsin Engineering & Construction.

View our latest analysis for Dongsin Engineering & Construction

What Does The Lack Of Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Dongsin Engineering & Construction?

Institutional investors often avoid companies that are too small, too illiquid or too risky for their tastes. But it's unusual to see larger companies without any institutional investors.

There are many reasons why a company might not have any institutions on the share registry. It may be hard for institutions to buy large amounts of shares, if liquidity (the amount of shares traded each day) is low. If the company has not needed to raise capital, institutions might lack the opportunity to build a position. Alternatively, there might be something about the company that has kept institutional investors away. Institutional investors may not find the historic growth of the business impressive, or there might be other factors at play. You can see the past revenue performance of Dongsin Engineering & Construction, for yourself, below.

Dongsin Engineering & Construction is not owned by hedge funds. The company's CEO Geun-Han Kim is the largest shareholder with 39% of shares outstanding. Cheong-Han Kim is the second largest shareholder owning 30% of common stock, and Dong-Shin Co.Ltd. holds about 2.4% of the company stock.

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 69% stake.

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. As far as we can tell there isn't analyst coverage of the company, so it is probably flying under the radar.

Insider Ownership Of Dongsin Engineering & Construction

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 Dongsin Engineering & Construction stock. This gives them a lot of power. Given it has a market cap of ₩447b, that means they have ₩307b worth of shares. It is good to see this level of investment. You can check here to see if those insiders have been buying recently.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 29% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. 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:

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. Take risks for example - Dongsin Engineering & Construction has 2 warning signs (and 1 which doesn't sit too well with us) we think you should know about.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies.

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.