Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by public companies in Ausnutria Dairy indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• The largest shareholder of the company is Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co., Ltd. with a 60% stake
• 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. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 68% to be precise, is public companies. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

As market cap fell to HK$4.2b last week, public companies would have faced the highest losses than any other shareholder groups of the company.

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

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

We don't tend to see institutional investors holding stock of companies that are very risky, thinly traded, or very small. Though we do sometimes see large companies without institutions on the register, it's not particularly common.

There could be various reasons why no institutions own shares in a company. Typically, small, newly listed companies don't attract much attention from fund managers, because it would not be possible for large fund managers to build a meaningful position in the company. It is also possible that fund managers don't own the stock because they aren't convinced it will perform well. Ausnutria Dairy'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.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Ausnutria Dairy. Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co., Ltd. is currently the company's largest shareholder with 60% of shares outstanding. This implies that they have majority interest control of the future of the company. With 8.3% and 5.3% of the shares outstanding respectively, Center Laboratories, Inc. and Bartle van der Meer are the second and third largest shareholders. Bartle van der Meer, who is the third-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Member of the Board of Directors.

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

Insider Ownership Of Ausnutria Dairy

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.

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 can see that insiders own shares in Ausnutria Dairy Corporation Ltd. It has a market capitalization of just HK$4.2b, and insiders have HK$411m worth of shares, in their own names. It is good to see some investment by insiders, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 16% stake in Ausnutria Dairy. 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

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 5.2%, of the company's shares. 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. 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:

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. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for Ausnutria Dairy (of which 1 is a bit concerning!) you should know about.

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.