Key Insights

• Significant control over Zhongjing Food by private companies implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
• The top 2 shareholders own 54% of the company
• Insiders own 24% of Zhongjing Food

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Zhongjing Food Co., Ltd. (SZSE:300908), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. With 39% stake, private companies possess the maximum shares in the company. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Clearly, private companies benefitted the most after the company's market cap rose by CN¥504m last week.

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

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Zhongjing Food?

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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Zhongjing Food. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. 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 Zhongjing Food's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Zhongjing Food is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Henan Wanxi Holding Co., Ltd. with 39% of shares outstanding. Xincheng Zhu is the second largest shareholder owning 15% of common stock, and Li Yang holds about 1.5% of the company stock. Note that the second and third-largest shareholders are also Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board of Directors, respectively, meaning that the company's top shareholders are insiders.

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.

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 is some analyst coverage of the stock, but it could still become more well known, with time.

Insider Ownership Of Zhongjing Food

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.

Our information suggests that insiders maintain a significant holding in Zhongjing Food Co., Ltd.. Insiders own CN¥1.2b worth of shares in the CN¥4.9b company. We would say this shows alignment with shareholders, but it is worth noting that the company is still quite small; some insiders may have founded the business. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 30% 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

It seems that Private Companies own 39%, of the Zhongjing Food 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:

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 Zhongjing Food that you should be aware of.

If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.

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.