Kok Tian Ang ASL Marine Holdings Ltd.'s (SGX:A04) CEO is the most bullish insider, and their stock value gained 25%last week

Key Insights

• ASL Marine Holdings' significant insider ownership suggests inherent interests in company's expansion
• 59% of the business is held by the top 4 shareholders
• Institutions own 11% of ASL Marine Holdings

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If you want to know who really controls ASL Marine Holdings Ltd. (SGX:A04), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. With 74% stake, individual insiders possess the maximum shares in the company. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

As a result, insiders were the biggest beneficiaries of last week’s 25% gain.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of ASL Marine Holdings.

Check out our latest analysis for ASL Marine Holdings

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About ASL Marine Holdings?

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.

We can see that ASL Marine Holdings does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see ASL Marine Holdings' historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

ASL Marine Holdings is not owned by hedge funds. The company's CEO Kok Tian Ang is the largest shareholder with 18% of shares outstanding. Sin Liu Ang is the second largest shareholder owning 16% of common stock, and Ah Nui Ang holds about 14% of the company stock. Interestingly, the second and third-largest shareholders also happen to be the Top Key Executive and Member of the Board of Directors, respectively. This once again signifies considerable insider ownership amongst the company's top shareholders.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 4 shareholders control more than half of the company's shares which essentially means that there is concentrated ownership amongst the top shareholders, most of whom happen to be insiders!

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. As far as we can tell there isn't analyst coverage of the company, so it is probably flying under the radar.

Insider Ownership Of ASL Marine Holdings

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own the majority of ASL Marine Holdings Ltd.. This means they can collectively make decisions for the company. Given it has a market cap of S$227m, that means they have S$169m worth of shares. Most would be pleased to see the board is investing alongside them. You may wish todiscover (for free) if they have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 15% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over ASL Marine Holdings. 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.

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. For instance, we've identified 3 warning signs for ASL Marine Holdings (2 are potentially serious) that you should be aware of.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this 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.