Key Insights

• Insiders appear to have a vested interest in TI Cloud's growth, as seen by their sizeable ownership
• A total of 3 investors have a majority stake in the company with 52% ownership
• Ownership research, combined with past performance data can help provide a good understanding of opportunities in a stock

If you want to know who really controls TI Cloud Inc. (HKG:2167), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 50% to be precise, is individual insiders. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

As market cap fell to HK$1.7b last week, insiders would have faced the highest losses than any other shareholder groups of the company.

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

View our latest analysis for TI Cloud

What Does The Lack Of Institutional Ownership Tell Us About TI Cloud?

Institutional investors often avoid companies that are too small, too illiquid or too risky for their tastes. But it's unusual to see larger companies without any institutional investors.

There are multiple explanations for why institutions don't own a stock. The most common is that the company is too small relative to funds under management, so the institution does not bother to look closely at the company. It is also possible that fund managers don't own the stock because they aren't convinced it will perform well. TI Cloud's earnings and revenue track record (below) may not be compelling to institutional investors -- or they simply might not have looked at the business closely.

Our data indicates that hedge funds own 5.3% of TI Cloud. That catches my attention because hedge funds sometimes try to influence management, or bring about changes that will create near term value for shareholders. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is the CEO Qiang Wu with 34% of shares outstanding. Fortune Ascend Holdings Ltd is the second largest shareholder owning 10% of common stock, and Wei Pan holds about 7.8% of the company stock. Interestingly, the third-largest shareholder, Wei Pan is also a Member of the Board of Directors, again, indicating strong insider ownership amongst the company's top shareholders.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 3 shareholders collectively control more than half of the company's shares, implying that they have considerable power to influence the company's decisions.

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. While there is some analyst coverage, the company is probably not widely covered. So it could gain more attention, down the track.

Insider Ownership Of TI Cloud

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.

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.

Our information suggests that insiders maintain a significant holding in TI Cloud Inc.. It has a market capitalization of just HK$1.7b, and insiders have HK$822m worth of shares in their own names. 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

With a 35% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over TI Cloud. 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 10%, of the shares on issue. It might be worth looking deeper into this. If related parties, such as insiders, have an interest in one of these private companies, that should be disclosed in the annual report. Private companies may also have a strategic interest in the company.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. To that end, you should be aware of the 1 warning sign we've spotted with TI Cloud .

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.