Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by private companies in Hang Lung Group indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• The top 3 shareholders own 54% of the company
• Insiders have bought recently

If you want to know who really controls Hang Lung Group Limited (HKG:10), 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 private companies with 38% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

Meanwhile, individual investors make up 31% of the company's shareholders.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Hang Lung Group.

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Hang Lung Group?

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.

Hang Lung Group 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 Hang Lung 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 Hang Lung Group. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Cole Enterprises Holdings (PTC) Limited with 38% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 8.1% and 7.7% of the stock.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 3 shareholders collectively control more than half of the company's shares, implying that they have considerable power to influence the company's decisions.

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 Hang Lung Group

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. 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.

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

Our data suggests that insiders own under 1% of Hang Lung Group Limited in their own names. But they may have an indirect interest through a corporate structure that we haven't picked up on. It's a big company, so even a small proportional interest can create alignment between the board and shareholders. In this case insiders own HK$135m worth of shares. Arguably, recent buying and selling is just as important to consider. You can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 31% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. 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

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 38%, 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.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Hang Lung Group better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 2 warning signs for Hang Lung Group (1 is significant) that you should be aware of.

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.