Key Insights

• Significant control over Ausnutria Dairy by public companies implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• 60% of the company is held by a single shareholder (Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co., Ltd.)
• Ownership research along with analyst forecasts data help provide a good understanding of opportunities in a stock

If you want to know who really controls Ausnutria Dairy Corporation Ltd (HKG:1717), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. With 68% stake, public companies possess the maximum shares in the company. 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$4.7b last week, public companies would have faced the highest losses than any other shareholder groups of the company.

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

Check out our latest analysis for Ausnutria Dairy

What Does The Lack Of Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Ausnutria Dairy?

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. Institutional investors may not find the historic growth of the business impressive, or there might be other factors at play. You can see the past revenue performance of Ausnutria Dairy, for yourself, below.

Ausnutria Dairy is not owned by hedge funds. The company's largest shareholder is Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co., Ltd., with ownership of 60%. 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 8.3% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 5.3% by the third-largest shareholder. Bartle van der Meer, who is the third-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Member of the Board of Directors.

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

Insider Ownership Of Ausnutria Dairy

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. 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.

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own some shares in Ausnutria Dairy Corporation Ltd. In their own names, insiders own HK$462m worth of stock in the HK$4.7b company. This shows at least some alignment. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 16% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Ausnutria Dairy. 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 5.2%, of the Ausnutria Dairy stock. It's hard to draw any conclusions from this fact alone, so its worth looking into who owns those private companies. Sometimes insiders or other related parties have an interest in shares in a public company through a separate private company.

Public Company Ownership

It appears to us that public companies own 68% of Ausnutria Dairy. It's hard to say for sure but this suggests they have entwined business interests. This might be a strategic stake, so it's worth watching this space for changes in ownership.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Ausnutria Dairy better, we need to consider many other factors. Case in point: We've spotted 2 warning signs for Ausnutria Dairy you should be aware of, and 1 of them can't be ignored.

If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its 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.