Key Insights

• Significant control over CSSC (Hong Kong) Shipping by public companies implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• CSSC Offshore & Marine Engineering (Group) Company Limited owns 75% of the company
• Institutions own 13% of CSSC (Hong Kong) Shipping

A look at the shareholders of CSSC (Hong Kong) Shipping Company Limited (HKG:3877) can tell us which group is most powerful. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are public companies with 75% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

While public companies were the group that reaped the most benefits after last week's 6.6% price gain, institutions also received a 13% cut.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of CSSC (Hong Kong) Shipping, beginning with the chart below.

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About CSSC (Hong Kong) Shipping?

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.

CSSC (Hong Kong) Shipping already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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. 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 CSSC (Hong Kong) Shipping, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in CSSC (Hong Kong) Shipping. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is CSSC Offshore & Marine Engineering (Group) Company Limited with 75% of shares outstanding. With such a huge stake in the ownership, we infer that they have significant control of the future of the company. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 8.5% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 4.0% by the third-largest shareholder.

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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of CSSC (Hong Kong) Shipping

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.

We note our data does not show any board members holding shares, personally. We do not see this low level of ownership often, and it is possible our data is imperfect. But shareholders can click here to check if insiders have been selling stock.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 12% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. This size of ownership, while considerable, may not be enough to change company policy if the decision is not in sync with other large shareholders.

Public Company Ownership

We can see that public companies hold 75% of the CSSC (Hong Kong) Shipping shares on issue. This may be a strategic interest and the two companies may have related business interests. It could be that they have de-merged. This holding is probably worth investigating further.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Take risks for example - CSSC (Hong Kong) Shipping has 2 warning signs (and 1 which is significant) we think you should know about.

But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter 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.