A look at the shareholders of Shanghai Labway Clinical Laboratory Co., Ltd. (SZSE:301060) can tell us which group is most powerful. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 54% to be precise, is private companies. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

And following last week's 10% decline in share price, private companies suffered the most losses.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Shanghai Labway Clinical Laboratory, beginning with the chart below.

View our latest analysis for Shanghai Labway Clinical Laboratory

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Shanghai Labway Clinical Laboratory?

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.

Institutions have a very small stake in Shanghai Labway Clinical Laboratory. That indicates that the company is on the radar of some funds, but it isn't particularly popular with professional investors at the moment. If the business gets stronger from here, we could see a situation where more institutions are keen to buy. When multiple institutional investors want to buy shares, we often see a rising share price. The past revenue trajectory (shown below) can be an indication of future growth, but there are no guarantees.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Shanghai Labway Clinical Laboratory. The company's largest shareholder is Shanghai Lanwei Investment Co., Ltd., with ownership of 37%. Weixiong Zeng is the second largest shareholder owning 13% of common stock, and Heilan Group Co., Ltd. holds about 11% of the company stock. Weixiong Zeng, who is the second-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Chief Executive Officer.

To make our study more interesting, we found that the top 2 shareholders have a majority ownership in the company, meaning that they are powerful enough to influence the decisions of the company.

Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. As far as we can tell there isn't analyst coverage of the company, so it is probably flying under the radar.

Insider Ownership Of Shanghai Labway Clinical Laboratory

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. 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 information suggests that insiders maintain a significant holding in Shanghai Labway Clinical Laboratory Co., Ltd.. Insiders own CN¥1.8b worth of shares in the CN¥11b company. That's quite meaningful. Most would be pleased to see the board is investing alongside them. You may wish to access this free chart showing recent trading by insiders.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 25% stake in Shanghai Labway Clinical Laboratory. 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 54%, of the Shanghai Labway Clinical Laboratory 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 Shanghai Labway Clinical Laboratory better, we need to consider many other factors. Case in point: We've spotted 2 warning signs for Shanghai Labway Clinical Laboratory you should be aware of, and 1 of them shouldn't be ignored.

If you would prefer check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, backed by strong financial data.

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.