What Type Of Shareholders Own The Most Number of Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance Co., Ltd. (KRX:000060) Shares?

A look at the shareholders of Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance Co., Ltd. (KRX:000060) can tell us which group is most powerful. Institutions often own shares in more established companies, while it's not unusual to see insiders own a fair bit of smaller companies. Companies that used to be publicly owned tend to have lower insider ownership.

With a market capitalization of ₩1.8t, Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance is a decent size, so it is probably on the radar of institutional investors. In the chart below, we can see that institutions own shares in the company. Let's delve deeper into each type of owner, to discover more about Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance.

See our latest analysis for Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance?

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.

Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance 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. 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 Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Meritz Financial Group Inc. with 57% of shares outstanding. This implies that they have majority interest control of the future of the company. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 5.8% and 4.1% of the stock.

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. While there is some analyst coverage, the company is probably not widely covered. So it could gain more attention, down the track.

Insider Ownership Of Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. 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 most recent data indicates that insiders own less than 1% of Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance Co., Ltd.. It is a pretty big company, so it would be possible for board members to own a meaningful interest in the company, without owning much of a proportional interest. In this case, they own around ₩4.2b worth of shares (at current prices). It is always good to see at least some insider ownership, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 17% ownership, the general public have some degree of sway over Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance. 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

We can see that public companies hold 57% of the Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance shares on issue. It's hard to say for sure but this suggests they have entwined business interests. This might be a strategic stake, so it's worth watching this space for changes in ownership.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance better, we need to consider many other factors. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance you should know about.

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

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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