While institutions invested in Giant Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TWSE:9921) benefited from last week's 6.5% gain, individual investors stood to gain the most

Key Insights

• Giant Manufacturing's significant individual investors ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• 48% of the business is held by the top 25 shareholders
• Insiders own 17% of Giant Manufacturing

If you want to know who really controls Giant Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TWSE:9921), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. We can see that individual investors own the lion's share in the company with 47% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Individual investors gained the most after market cap touched NT$56b last week, while institutions who own 25% also benefitted.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Giant Manufacturing.

View our latest analysis for Giant Manufacturing

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Giant Manufacturing?

Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Giant Manufacturing. 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 Giant Manufacturing's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Giant Manufacturing. The company's largest shareholder is Kinabalu Holding Company, with ownership of 4.7%. With 4.5% and 4.2% of the shares outstanding respectively, HSBC Global Asset Management (UK) Limited and Yong Liu are the second and third largest shareholders. In addition, we found that Su-Jyuan Liu, the CEO has 1.6% of the shares allocated to their name.

On studying our ownership data, we found that 25 of the top shareholders collectively own less than 50% of the share register, implying that no single individual has a majority interest.

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. There are a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future.

Insider Ownership Of Giant Manufacturing

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.

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 information suggests that insiders maintain a significant holding in Giant Manufacturing Co., Ltd.. It is very interesting to see that insiders have a meaningful NT$9.5b stake in this NT$56b business. It is good to see this level of investment. You can check here to see if those insiders have been buying recently.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 47% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. 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.

Private Company Ownership

It seems that Private Companies own 7.9%, of the Giant Manufacturing stock. Private companies may be related parties. Sometimes insiders have an interest in a public company through a holding in a private company, rather than in their own capacity as an individual. While it's hard to draw any broad stroke conclusions, it is worth noting as an area for further research.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Giant Manufacturing better, we need to consider many other factors. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 1 warning sign with Giant Manufacturing , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.

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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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.