Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by private companies in Wing Tai Holdings indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• A total of 3 investors have a majority stake in the company with 52% ownership
• Insiders own 12% of Wing Tai Holdings

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Wing Tai Holdings Limited (SGX:W05), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 51% to be precise, is private companies. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Clearly, private companies benefitted the most after the company's market cap rose by S$69m last week.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Wing Tai Holdings.

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Wing Tai 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.

We can see that Wing Tai Holdings does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see Wing Tai Holdings' historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Wing Tai Holdings. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Wing Tai Asia Holdings Ltd with 29% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 12% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 11% by the third-largest shareholder. Wai Keung Cheng, who is the third-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Chairman of the Board.

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. Our information suggests that there isn't any analyst coverage of the stock, so it is probably little known.

Insider Ownership Of Wing Tai Holdings

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. 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.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of Wing Tai Holdings Limited. Insiders have a S$116m stake in this S$990m 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

With a 30% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Wing Tai Holdings. 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

It seems that Private Companies own 51%, of the Wing Tai Holdings stock. Private companies may be related parties. Sometimes insiders have an interest in a public company through a holding in a private company, rather than in their own capacity as an individual. While it's hard to draw any broad stroke conclusions, it is worth noting as an area for further research.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Be aware that Wing Tai Holdings is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those doesn't sit too well with us...

Of course this may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free free list of interesting companies.

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.