Public companies in GS Retail Co., Ltd. (KRX:007070) are its biggest bettors, and their bets paid off as stock gained 6.4% last week

Key Insights

• GS Retail's significant public companies ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• A total of 2 investors have a majority stake in the company with 54% ownership
• 13% of GS Retail is held by Institutions

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To get a sense of who is truly in control of GS Retail Co., Ltd. (KRX:007070), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 47% to be precise, is public companies. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

As a result, public companies were the biggest beneficiaries of last week’s 6.4% gain.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of GS Retail, beginning with the chart below.

View our latest analysis for GS Retail

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About GS Retail?

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 GS Retail does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see GS Retail's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in GS Retail. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is GS Holdings Corp. with 47% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 6.8% and 1.5%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 2 shareholders collectively control more than half of the company's shares, implying that they have considerable power to influence the company's decisions.

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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of GS Retail

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. 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 information suggests that GS Retail Co., Ltd. insiders own under 1% of the company. It has a market capitalization of just ₩1.2t, and the board has only ₩95m worth of shares in their own names. Many investors in smaller companies prefer to see the board more heavily invested. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 40% stake in GS Retail. 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.

Public Company Ownership

It appears to us that public companies own 47% of GS Retail. 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. Be aware that GS Retail is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis , you should know about...

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.

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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.