Key Insights

• Yunnan Tourism's significant private companies ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• A total of 2 investors have a majority stake in the company with 54% ownership
• Past performance of a company along with ownership data serve to give a strong idea about prospects for a business

If you want to know who really controls Yunnan Tourism Co., Ltd. (SZSE:002059), 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 60% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

As a result, private companies collectively scored the highest last week as the company hit CN¥6.3b market cap following a 16% gain in the stock.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Yunnan Tourism.

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Yunnan Tourism?

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.

Since institutions own only a small portion of Yunnan Tourism, many may not have spent much time considering the stock. But it's clear that some have; and they liked it enough to buy in. 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 Yunnan Tourism. Yunnan Expo Tourism Group Holdings.,LTD is currently the company's largest shareholder with 36% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 18% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 3.9% by the third-largest shareholder. Jian Li, who is the third-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Member of the Board of Directors.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 2 shareholders collectively control more than half of the company's shares, implying that they have considerable power to influence the company's decisions.

While it makes sense to study institutional ownership data for a company, it also makes sense to study analyst sentiments to know which way the wind is blowing. 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 Yunnan Tourism

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

Shareholders would probably be interested to learn that insiders own shares in Yunnan Tourism Co., Ltd.. It has a market capitalization of just CN¥6.3b, and insiders have CN¥365m worth of shares, in their own names. It is good to see some investment by insiders, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 33% 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

It seems that Private Companies own 60%, of the Yunnan Tourism stock. 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 Yunnan Tourism better, we need to consider many other factors. To that end, you should be aware of the 1 warning sign we've spotted with Yunnan Tourism .

If you would prefer check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, backed by strong financial data.

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.