Retail investors are VIOL Co., Ltd.'s (KOSDAQ:335890) biggest owners and were rewarded after market cap rose by ₩90b last week

Key Insights

• Significant control over VIOL by retail investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• A total of 25 investors have a majority stake in the company with 45% ownership
• Analyst forecasts along with ownership data serve to give a strong idea about prospects for a business

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If you want to know who really controls VIOL Co., Ltd. (KOSDAQ:335890), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. With 55% stake, retail investors possess the maximum shares in the company. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

As a result, retail investors collectively scored the highest last week as the company hit ₩715b market cap following a 14% gain in the stock.

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

Check out our latest analysis for VIOL

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About VIOL?

Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in VIOL. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. 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 VIOL, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

VIOL is not owned by hedge funds. Our data shows that DMS Co.,Ltd. is the largest shareholder with 35% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 4.1% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 0.8% by the third-largest shareholder.

A deeper look at our ownership data shows that the top 25 shareholders collectively hold less than half of the register, suggesting a large group of small holders where no single shareholder has a majority.

Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of VIOL

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. 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.

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.

Shareholders would probably be interested to learn that insiders own shares in VIOL Co., Ltd.. As individuals, the insiders collectively own ₩13b worth of the ₩715b 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, mostly comprising of individual investors, collectively holds 55% of VIOL shares. This level of ownership gives investors from the wider public some power to sway key policy decisions such as board composition, executive compensation, and the dividend payout ratio.

Public Company Ownership

We can see that public companies hold 35% of the VIOL shares on issue. 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.

I like to dive deeper into how a company has performed in the past. You can access this interactive graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow, for free.

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.