Institutional investors may adopt severe steps after Vieworks Co., Ltd.'s (KOSDAQ:100120) latest 11% drop adds to a year losses

Key Insights

• Given the large stake in the stock by institutions, Vieworks' stock price might be vulnerable to their trading decisions
• The top 5 shareholders own 51% of the company
• Insiders own 31% of Vieworks

If you want to know who really controls Vieworks Co., Ltd. (KOSDAQ:100120), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. With 43% stake, institutions possess the maximum shares in the company. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

And institutional investors saw their holdings value drop by 11% last week. This set of investors may especially be concerned about the current loss, which adds to a one-year loss of 27% for shareholders. Also referred to as "smart money", institutions have a lot of sway over how a stock's price moves. Hence, if weakness in Vieworks' share price continues, institutional investors may feel compelled to sell the stock, which might not be ideal for individual investors.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Vieworks.

See our latest analysis for Vieworks

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Vieworks?

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.

Vieworks 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. 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 Vieworks' historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Vieworks is not owned by hedge funds. The company's CEO Hooshik Kim is the largest shareholder with 16% of shares outstanding. With 11% and 10% of the shares outstanding respectively, FMR LLC and Fidelity International Ltd are the second and third largest shareholders.

Our research also brought to light the fact that roughly 51% of the company is controlled by the top 5 shareholders suggesting that these owners wield significant influence on the business.

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. There are a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future.

Insider Ownership Of Vieworks

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

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.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of Vieworks Co., Ltd.. Insiders have a ₩59b stake in this ₩191b business. It is great to see insiders so invested in the business. It might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying recently.

General Public Ownership

With a 26% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Vieworks. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Vieworks better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 1 warning sign for Vieworks that you should be aware of before investing here.

But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter 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.