Public companies are Prestige Biologics Co., Ltd.'s (KOSDAQ:334970) biggest owners and were hit after market cap dropped ₩40b

Key Insights

• Prestige Biologics' significant public companies ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• The top 2 shareholders own 50% of the company
• 20% of Prestige Biologics is held by insiders

Every investor in Prestige Biologics Co., Ltd. (KOSDAQ:334970) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. With 40% stake, public companies possess the maximum shares in the company. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

And last week, public companies endured the biggest losses as the stock fell by 10.0%.

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

View our latest analysis for Prestige Biologics

What Does The Lack Of Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Prestige Biologics?

Institutional investors often avoid companies that are too small, too illiquid or too risky for their tastes. But it's unusual to see larger companies without any institutional investors.

There are many reasons why a company might not have any institutions on the share registry. It may be hard for institutions to buy large amounts of shares, if liquidity (the amount of shares traded each day) is low. If the company has not needed to raise capital, institutions might lack the opportunity to build a position. On the other hand, it's always possible that professional investors are avoiding a company because they don't think it's the best place for their money. Institutional investors may not find the historic growth of the business impressive, or there might be other factors at play. You can see the past revenue performance of Prestige Biologics, for yourself, below.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Prestige Biologics. The company's largest shareholder is Prestige BioPharma Limited, with ownership of 40%. With 10% and 10.0% of the shares outstanding respectively, So-Yeon Park and Jinwoo Kim are the second and third largest shareholders.

A more detailed study of the shareholder registry showed us that 2 of the top shareholders have a considerable amount of ownership in the company, via their 50% stake.

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. Our information suggests that there isn't any analyst coverage of the stock, so it is probably little known.

Insider Ownership Of Prestige Biologics

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.

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.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of Prestige Biologics Co., Ltd.. Insiders own ₩74b worth of shares in the ₩362b company. We would say this shows alignment with shareholders, but it is worth noting that the company is still quite small; some insiders may have founded the business. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 35% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. This size of ownership, while considerable, may not be enough to change company policy if the decision is not in sync with other large shareholders.

Private Company Ownership

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 4.2%, of the company's shares. 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 40% of the Prestige Biologics 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:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 5 warning signs for Prestige Biologics (of which 2 don't sit too well with us!) you should know about.

Of course this may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free free list of interesting companies.

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.