Both retail investors who control a good portion of WinWay Technology Co., Ltd. (TWSE:6515) along with institutions must be dismayed after last week's 4.5% decrease

Key Insights

• WinWay Technology's significant retail investors ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• The top 13 shareholders own 50% of the company
• Insider ownership in WinWay Technology is 23%

To get a sense of who is truly in control of WinWay Technology Co., Ltd. (TWSE:6515), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are retail investors with 42% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

While the holdings of retail investors took a hit after last week’s 4.5% price drop, institutions with their 26% holdings also suffered.

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

View our latest analysis for WinWay Technology

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About WinWay Technology?

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 WinWay Technology 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. 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 WinWay Technology'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 WinWay Technology. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is the CEO Jiahuang Wang with 14% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 6.8% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 4.1% by the third-largest shareholder. Interestingly, the third-largest shareholder, JQ Lee is also a Member of the Board of Directors, again, indicating strong insider ownership amongst the company's top shareholders.

Looking at the shareholder registry, we can see that 50% of the ownership is controlled by the top 13 shareholders, meaning that no single shareholder has a majority interest in the ownership.

While it makes sense to study institutional ownership data for a company, it also makes sense to study analyst sentiments to know which way the wind is blowing. There is some analyst coverage of the stock, but it could still become more well known, with time.

Insider Ownership Of WinWay Technology

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.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of WinWay Technology Co., Ltd.. It is very interesting to see that insiders have a meaningful NT$9.3b stake in this NT$41b business. Most would say this shows a good degree of alignment with shareholders, especially in a company of this size. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 42% stake in WinWay Technology. 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

We can see that Private Companies own 9.4%, of the shares on issue. 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:

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. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 1 warning sign with WinWay Technology , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.

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.

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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.