In the wake of Canadian Solar Inc.'s (NASDAQ:CSIQ) latest US$54m market cap drop, institutional owners may be forced to take severe actions

Key Insights

• Significantly high institutional ownership implies Canadian Solar's stock price is sensitive to their trading actions
• The top 7 shareholders own 53% of the company
• Insider ownership in Canadian Solar is 21%

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ:CSIQ), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 42% to be precise, is institutions. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

And so it follows that institutional investors was the group most impacted after the company's market cap fell to US$624m last week after a 7.9% drop in the share price. This set of investors may especially be concerned about the current loss, which adds to a one-year loss of 51% for shareholders. Often called “market movers", institutions wield significant power in influencing the price dynamics of any stock. As a result, if the downtrend continues, institutions may face pressures to sell Canadian Solar, which might have negative implications on individual investors.

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

See our latest analysis for Canadian Solar

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Canadian Solar?

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 Canadian Solar 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. 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 Canadian Solar's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

It would appear that 8.3% of Canadian Solar shares are controlled by hedge funds. That worth noting, since hedge funds are often quite active investors, who may try to influence management. Many want to see value creation (and a higher share price) in the short term or medium term. The company's CEO Xiaohua Qu is the largest shareholder with 21% of shares outstanding. With 8.3% and 7.7% of the shares outstanding respectively, Mackenzie Financial Corporation and Venture Holding S.à R.L. Spf are the second and third largest shareholders.

We did some more digging and found that 7 of the top shareholders account for roughly 53% of the register, implying that along with larger shareholders, there are a few smaller shareholders, thereby balancing out each others interests somewhat.

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 Canadian Solar

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. 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.

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 a reasonable proportion of Canadian Solar Inc.. Insiders have a US$132m stake in this US$624m business. This may suggest that the founders still own a lot of shares. You can click here to see if they have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 20% 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

We can see that Private Companies own 7.7%, of the shares on issue. 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 Canadian Solar better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 3 warning signs for Canadian Solar (2 shouldn't be ignored) that you should be aware of.

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.