Key Insights

• Nature Wood Group's significant insider ownership suggests inherent interests in company's expansion

• The largest shareholder of the company is Hok Pan Se with a 73% stake

• 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 Nature Wood Group Limited (NASDAQ:NWGL), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are individual insiders with 88% ownership. 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 US$199m 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 Nature Wood Group, beginning with the chart below.

View our latest analysis for Nature Wood Group

What Does The Lack Of Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Nature Wood Group?

Small companies that are not very actively traded often lack institutional investors, but it's less common to see large companies without them.

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. On the other hand, it's always possible that professional investors are avoiding a company because they don't think it's the best place for their money. 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 Nature Wood Group, for yourself, below.

Nature Wood Group is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Hok Pan Se with 73% of shares outstanding. This implies that they have majority interest control of the future of the company. The second and third largest shareholders are Qing Huang and Wing Chan, with an equal amount of shares to their name at 5.7%.

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. We're not picking up on any analyst coverage of the stock at the moment, so the company is unlikely to be widely held.

Insider Ownership Of Nature Wood Group

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

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 own more than half of Nature Wood Group Limited. This gives them effective control of the company. So they have a US$175m stake in this US$199m business. 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

With a 12% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Nature Wood Group. 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.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Nature Wood Group better, we need to consider many other factors. Case in point: We've spotted 5 warning signs for Nature Wood Group you should be aware of, and 3 of them are concerning.

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.