Private companies are VIA Technologies, Inc.'s (TWSE:2388) biggest owners and were hit after market cap dropped NT$2.1b

Key Insights

• Significant control over VIA Technologies by private companies implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• 50% of the business is held by the top 8 shareholders
• Insider ownership in VIA Technologies is 11%

A look at the shareholders of VIA Technologies, Inc. (TWSE:2388) can tell us which group is most powerful. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 44% to be precise, is private companies. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

And following last week's 4.2% decline in share price, private companies suffered the most losses.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about VIA Technologies.

See our latest analysis for VIA Technologies

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About VIA Technologies?

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.

We can see that VIA Technologies does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of VIA Technologies, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in VIA Technologies. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Shin Ton Investment Co., Ltd. with 8.7% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 8.2% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 7.6% by the third-largest shareholder. Furthermore, CEO Wen-Chi Chen is the owner of 1.3% of the company's shares.

We also observed that the top 8 shareholders account for more than half of the share register, with a few smaller shareholders to balance the interests of the larger ones to a certain extent.

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. We're not picking up on any analyst coverage of the stock at the moment, so the company is unlikely to be widely held.

Insider Ownership Of VIA Technologies

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. 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 VIA Technologies, Inc.. It has a market capitalization of just NT$47b, and insiders have NT$5.1b worth of shares in their own names. That's quite significant. 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, who are usually individual investors, hold a 39% stake in VIA Technologies. 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 44%, of the VIA Technologies 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 VIA Technologies better, we need to consider many other factors. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for VIA Technologies (of which 1 is a bit unpleasant!) you should know about.

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.