What Kind Of Investors Own Most Of Wah Seong Corporation Berhad (KLSE:WASEONG)?

The big shareholder groups in Wah Seong Corporation Berhad (KLSE:WASEONG) have power over the company. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders. I quite like to see at least a little bit of insider ownership. As Charlie Munger said 'Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome.

Wah Seong Corporation Berhad is not a large company by global standards. It has a market capitalization of RM616m, which means it wouldn't have the attention of many institutional investors. Taking a look at our data on the ownership groups (below), it seems that institutions are noticeable on the share registry. Let's delve deeper into each type of owner, to discover more about Wah Seong Corporation Berhad.

See our latest analysis for Wah Seong Corporation Berhad

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Wah Seong Corporation Berhad?

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.

We can see that Wah Seong Corporation Berhad does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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. 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 Wah Seong Corporation Berhad's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Wah Seong Corporation Berhad is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Wah Seong (Malaya) Trading Company Sdn. Bhd. with 33% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 7.5% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 7.0% by the third-largest shareholder. Additionally, the company's CEO Cheu Chan directly holds 2.7% of the total shares outstanding.

Our research also brought to light the fact that roughly 53% of the company is controlled by the top 4 shareholders suggesting that these owners wield significant influence on the business.

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 are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of Wah Seong Corporation Berhad

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. 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.

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.

I can report that insiders do own shares in Wah Seong Corporation Berhad. As individuals, the insiders collectively own RM32m worth of the RM616m company. Some would say this shows alignment of interests between shareholders and the board, though I generally prefer to see bigger insider holdings. But it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public holds a 23% stake in Wah Seong Corporation Berhad. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 49%, of the Wah Seong Corporation Berhad stock. 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.

Next Steps:

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

If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its 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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