Key Insights

• Significant control over CK Life Sciences Int'l. (Holdings) by public companies implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• A total of 2 investors have a majority stake in the company with 67% ownership
• Insider ownership in CK Life Sciences Int'l. (Holdings) is 22%

Every investor in CK Life Sciences Int'l., (Holdings) Inc. (HKG:775) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. With 45% stake, public companies possess the maximum shares in the company. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

As a result, public companies as a group endured the highest losses last week after market cap fell by HK$529m.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about CK Life Sciences Int'l. (Holdings).

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About CK Life Sciences Int'l. (Holdings)?

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.

Less than 5% of CK Life Sciences Int'l. (Holdings) is held by institutional investors. This suggests that some funds have the company in their sights, but many have not yet bought shares in it. If the business gets stronger from here, we could see a situation where more institutions are keen to buy. It is not uncommon to see a big share price rise if multiple institutional investors are trying to buy into a stock at the same time. So check out the historic earnings trajectory, below, but keep in mind it's the future that counts most.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in CK Life Sciences Int'l. (Holdings). The company's largest shareholder is CK Hutchison Holdings Limited, with ownership of 45%. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 22% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 7.5% by the third-largest shareholder.

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.

While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. 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 CK Life Sciences Int'l. (Holdings)

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.

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 CK Life Sciences Int'l., (Holdings) Inc.. Insiders have a HK$747m stake in this HK$3.4b business. This may suggest that the founders still own a lot of shares. You can click here to see if they have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 24% 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 Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 7.5%, of the shares on issue. 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

We can see that public companies hold 45% of the CK Life Sciences Int'l. (Holdings) shares on issue. 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:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 4 warning signs for CK Life Sciences Int'l. (Holdings) (of which 2 are significant!) you should know about.

Of course this may not be the best stock to buy. Therefore, you may wish to see our free collection of interesting prospects boasting favorable financials.

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.