Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by private companies in Hla Group indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• A total of 2 investors have a majority stake in the company with 67% ownership
• Insider ownership in Hla Group is 26%

A look at the shareholders of Hla Group Corp., Ltd. (SHSE:600398) can tell us which group is most powerful. We can see that private companies own the lion's share in the company with 48% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Following a 4.4% decrease in the stock price last week, private companies suffered the most losses, but insiders who own 26% stock also took a hit.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Hla Group.

View our latest analysis for Hla Group

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Hla Group?

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.

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

Hla Group is not owned by hedge funds. Heilan Group Co., Ltd. is currently the largest shareholder, with 41% of shares outstanding. With 26% and 3.8% of the shares outstanding respectively, Jian Ping Zhou and Hailan International Trade Co., Ltd. are the second and third largest shareholders.

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. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of Hla Group

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.

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 most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of Hla Group Corp., Ltd.. Insiders own CN¥8.3b worth of shares in the CN¥32b company. That's quite meaningful. It is good to see this level of investment. You can check here to see if those insiders have been buying recently.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 15% 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

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 48%, of the company's shares. 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:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Hla Group better, we need to consider many other factors. Be aware that Hla Group is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis , 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.