Retail investors in HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co., Ltd. (KRX:009540) are its biggest bettors, and their bets paid off as stock gained 3.2% last week

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by retail investors in HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• A total of 8 investors have a majority stake in the company with 51% ownership
• Institutional ownership in HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering is 22%

If you want to know who really controls HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co., Ltd. (KRX:009540), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. With 43% stake, retail 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).

Clearly, retail investors benefitted the most after the company's market cap rose by ₩495b last week.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering.

View our latest analysis for HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering?

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.

HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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 HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering. HD Hyundai Co., Ltd. is currently the company's largest shareholder with 35% of shares outstanding. National Pension Service is the second largest shareholder owning 6.3% of common stock, and The Vanguard Group, Inc. holds about 2.3% of the company stock.

On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 8 shareholders, suggesting that the interests of the larger shareholders are balanced out to an extent by the smaller ones.

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 plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering

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.

I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own less than 1% of HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co., Ltd.. Being so large, we would not expect insiders to own a large proportion of the stock. Collectively, they own ₩2.1b of stock. Arguably recent buying and selling is just as important to consider. You can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 43% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering. 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

It appears to us that public companies own 35% of HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering. It's hard to say for sure but this suggests they have entwined business interests. This might be a strategic stake, so it's worth watching this space for changes in ownership.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important.

I always like to check for a history of revenue growth. You can too, by accessing this free chart of historic revenue and earnings in this detailed graph.

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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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.