public companies who own 51% along with institutions invested in Lotte Wellfood Co.,Ltd (KRX:280360) saw increase in their holdings value last week

Key Insights

• Lotte WellfoodLtd's significant public companies ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• The largest shareholder of the company is LOTTE Corporation with a 51% stake
• Institutional ownership in Lotte WellfoodLtd is 20%

Every investor in Lotte Wellfood Co.,Ltd (KRX:280360) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are public companies with 51% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

While public companies were the group that benefitted the most from last week’s ₩76b market cap gain, institutions too had a 20% share in those profits.

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

View our latest analysis for Lotte WellfoodLtd

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Lotte WellfoodLtd?

Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices.

We can see that Lotte WellfoodLtd 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. 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 Lotte WellfoodLtd'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 Lotte WellfoodLtd. LOTTE Corporation is currently the company's largest shareholder with 51% of shares outstanding. With such a huge stake in the ownership, we infer that they have significant control of the future of the company. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 8.1% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 7.3% by the third-largest shareholder.

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

Insider Ownership Of Lotte WellfoodLtd

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. 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.

Shareholders would probably be interested to learn that insiders own shares in Lotte Wellfood Co.,Ltd. As individuals, the insiders collectively own ₩42b worth of the ₩1.1t company. This shows at least some alignment. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 12% 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.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 14%, of the Lotte WellfoodLtd stock. It's hard to draw any conclusions from this fact alone, so its worth looking into who owns those private companies. Sometimes insiders or other related parties have an interest in shares in a public company through a separate private company.

Public Company Ownership

We can see that public companies hold 51% of the Lotte WellfoodLtd shares on issue. We can't be certain but it is quite possible this is a strategic stake. The businesses may be similar, or work together.

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 - Lotte WellfoodLtd has 2 warning signs we think you should be aware of.

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.