Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by individual investors in Bestechnic (Shanghai) indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• A total of 11 investors have a majority stake in the company with 51% ownership
• Insider ownership in Bestechnic (Shanghai) is 26%

If you want to know who really controls Bestechnic (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (SHSE:688608), 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 investors with 29% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

While the holdings of individual investors took a hit after last week's 3.7% price drop, insiders with their 26% also suffered.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Bestechnic (Shanghai), beginning with the chart below.

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Bestechnic (Shanghai)?

Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.

Bestechnic (Shanghai) 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. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Bestechnic (Shanghai)'s earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Bestechnic (Shanghai). Because actions speak louder than words, we consider it a good sign when insiders own a significant stake in a company. In Bestechnic (Shanghai)'s case, its Head of Corporate Communications, Xiaodong Tang, is the largest shareholder, holding 11% of shares outstanding. Guoguang Zhao is the second largest shareholder owning 10% of common stock, and IDG Capital Partners Co., Ltd. holds about 9.6% of the company stock. Interestingly, the second-largest shareholder, Guoguang Zhao is also Chief Executive Officer, again, pointing towards strong insider ownership amongst the company's top shareholders.

Looking at the shareholder registry, we can see that 51% of the ownership is controlled by the top 11 shareholders, meaning that no single shareholder has a majority interest in the ownership.

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 a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future.

Insider Ownership Of Bestechnic (Shanghai)

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 Bestechnic (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.. It has a market capitalization of just CN¥14b, and insiders have CN¥3.6b worth of shares in their own names. That's quite significant. Most would be pleased to see the board is investing alongside them. You may wish to access this free chart showing recent trading by insiders.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 29% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Private Equity Ownership

With an ownership of 9.6%, private equity firms are in a position to play a role in shaping corporate strategy with a focus on value creation. Sometimes we see private equity stick around for the long term, but generally speaking they have a shorter investment horizon and -- as the name suggests -- don't invest in public companies much. After some time they may look to sell and redeploy capital elsewhere.

Private Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 13%, 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.

I like to dive deeper into how a company has performed in the past. You can access this interactive graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow, for free.

If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.

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.