Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by individual investors in Sheng Siong Group indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• 54% of the business is held by the top 4 shareholders
• 27% of Sheng Siong Group is held by insiders

Every investor in Sheng Siong Group Ltd (SGX:OV8) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. With 32% stake, individual investors 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.

Clearly, individual investors benefitted the most after the company's market cap rose by S$75m last week.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Sheng Siong Group.

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Sheng Siong Group?

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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Sheng Siong Group. 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 Sheng Siong Group's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Sheng Siong Group. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Sheng Siong Holdings Pte. Ltd. with 30% of shares outstanding. Hock Eng Lim is the second largest shareholder owning 8.0% of common stock, and Hock Leng Lim holds about 7.9% of the company stock. Note that the second and third-largest shareholders are also Top Key Executive and Member of the Board of Directors, respectively, meaning that the company's top shareholders are insiders. In addition, we found that Hock Chee Lim, the CEO has 7.9% of the shares allocated to their name.

To make our study more interesting, we found that the top 4 shareholders control more than half of the company which implies that this group has considerable sway over the company's decision-making.

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 plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of Sheng Siong 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.

I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.

Our information suggests that insiders maintain a significant holding in Sheng Siong Group Ltd. It is very interesting to see that insiders have a meaningful S$633m stake in this S$2.3b 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

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 32% stake in Sheng Siong 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.

Private Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 30%, 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.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Sheng Siong Group better, we need to consider many other factors. Be aware that Sheng Siong Group is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis , you should know about...

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com