Key Insights

• Significant control over Aier Eye Hospital Group by private companies implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• 53% of the business is held by the top 3 shareholders
• 20% of Aier Eye Hospital Group is held by insiders

If you want to know who really controls Aier Eye Hospital Group Co., Ltd. (SZSE:300015), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. We can see that private companies own the lion's share in the company with 34% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

And last week, private companies endured the biggest losses as the stock fell by 5.3%.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Aier Eye Hospital Group.

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Aier Eye Hospital 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.

Aier Eye Hospital Group already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. 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 Aier Eye Hospital Group's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Aier Eye Hospital Group is not owned by hedge funds. The company's largest shareholder is Aier Medical Investment Group Co., Ltd., with ownership of 34%. With 16% and 3.5% of the shares outstanding respectively, Bang Chen and Li Li are the second and third largest shareholders. Note that the second and third-largest shareholders are also Top Key Executive and Vice Chairman, respectively, meaning that the company's top shareholders are insiders.

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.

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 Aier Eye Hospital Group

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. 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.

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.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of Aier Eye Hospital Group Co., Ltd.. Insiders own CN¥25b worth of shares in the CN¥123b company. That's quite meaningful. Most would say this shows a good degree of alignment with shareholders, especially in a company of this size. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 29% stake in Aier Eye Hospital Group. 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 34%, 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:

I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for Aier Eye Hospital Group that you should be aware of.

But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter future.

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.