Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by retail investors in CIFI Holdings (Group) indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• A total of 7 investors have a majority stake in the company with 50% ownership
• Ownership research along with analyst forecasts data help provide a good understanding of opportunities in a stock

A look at the shareholders of CIFI Holdings (Group) Co. Ltd. (HKG:884) can tell us which group is most powerful. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are retail investors with 49% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

As a result, retail investors were the biggest beneficiaries of last week's 17% gain.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of CIFI Holdings (Group), beginning with the chart below.

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About CIFI Holdings (Group)?

Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices.

Since institutions own only a small portion of CIFI Holdings (Group), 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. So if the company itself can improve over time, we may well see more institutional buyers in the future. We sometimes see a rising share price when a few big institutions want to buy a certain stock at the same time. The history of earnings and revenue, which you can see below, could be helpful in considering if more institutional investors will want the stock. Of course, there are plenty of other factors to consider, too.

CIFI Holdings (Group) is not owned by hedge funds. Rosy Fortune Investments Limited is currently the company's largest shareholder with 26% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 13% and 6.8%, of the shares outstanding, respectively. Wei Lin, who is the third-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Vice Chairman.

We also observed that the top 7 shareholders account for more than half of the share register, with a few smaller shareholders to balance the interests of the larger ones to a certain extent.

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 plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of CIFI Holdings (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.

We can report that insiders do own shares in CIFI Holdings (Group) Co. Ltd.. It has a market capitalization of just HK$4.8b, and insiders have HK$453m worth of shares, in their own names. This shows at least some alignment. 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 49% stake in CIFI Holdings (Group). 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 CIFI Holdings (Group) 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:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Take risks for example - CIFI Holdings (Group) has 2 warning signs we think you should be aware of.

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

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.