JW Pharmaceutical Corporation's (KRX:001060) largest shareholders are retail investors who were rewarded as market cap surged ₩55b last week

Key Insights

• Significant control over JW Pharmaceutical by retail investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• The top 8 shareholders own 50% of the company
• 11% of JW Pharmaceutical is held by Institutions

If you want to know who really controls JW Pharmaceutical Corporation (KRX:001060), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are retail investors with 48% ownership. 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 ₩585b market cap following a 11% gain in the stock.

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

View our latest analysis for JW Pharmaceutical

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About JW Pharmaceutical?

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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in JW Pharmaceutical. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at JW Pharmaceutical's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in JW Pharmaceutical. Our data shows that JW Holdings Corporation is the largest shareholder with 40% of shares outstanding. With 5.0% and 2.1% of the shares outstanding respectively, National Pension Service and The Vanguard Group, Inc. are the second and third largest shareholders.

On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 8 shareholders, suggesting that the interests of the larger shareholders are balanced out to an extent by the smaller ones.

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. There is a little analyst coverage of the stock, but not much. So there is room for it to gain more coverage.

Insider Ownership Of JW Pharmaceutical

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. 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.

Our data suggests that insiders own under 1% of JW Pharmaceutical Corporation in their own names. It seems the board members have no more than ₩4.6b worth of shares in the ₩585b company. We generally like to see a board more invested. However it might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.

General Public Ownership

With a 48% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over JW Pharmaceutical. 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.

Public Company Ownership

We can see that public companies hold 40% of the JW Pharmaceutical 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:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand JW Pharmaceutical better, we need to consider many other factors. Case in point: We've spotted 1 warning sign for JW Pharmaceutical you should be aware of.

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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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.