E-MART Inc. (KRX:139480) surges 8.8%; retail investors who own 50% shares profited along with insiders

Key Insights

• E-MART's significant retail investors ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• 49% of the business is held by the top 25 shareholders
• 30% of E-MART is held by insiders

If you want to know who really controls E-MART Inc. (KRX:139480), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. We can see that retail investors own the lion's share in the company with 50% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

While retail investors were the group that benefitted the most from last week’s ₩150b market cap gain, insiders too had a 30% share in those profits.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of E-MART.

Check out our latest analysis for E-MART

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About E-MART?

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 E-MART does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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. 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 E-MART's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

E-MART is not owned by hedge funds. Yong-Jin Chung is currently the largest shareholder, with 19% of shares outstanding. With 10% and 8.3% of the shares outstanding respectively, Myung-Hee Lee and National Pension Service are the second and third largest shareholders.

On studying our ownership data, we found that 25 of the top shareholders collectively own less than 50% of the share register, implying that no single individual has a majority interest.

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 E-MART

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.

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.

Our information suggests that insiders maintain a significant holding in E-MART Inc.. Insiders own ₩554b worth of shares in the ₩1.9t company. That's quite meaningful. Most would say this shows a good degree of alignment with shareholders, especially in a company of this size. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 50% 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:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand E-MART better, we need to consider many other factors. Be aware that E-MART is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those is significant...

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.