Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by private companies in Zhejiang Yiming Food indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• The top 2 shareholders own 67% of the company
• Insiders own 39% of Zhejiang Yiming Food

If you want to know who really controls Zhejiang Yiming Food Co., Ltd. (SHSE:605179), 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 46% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Following a 9.9% increase in the stock price last week, private companies profited the most, but insiders who own 39% stock also stood to gain from the increase.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Zhejiang Yiming Food, beginning with the chart below.

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Zhejiang Yiming Food?

Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.

Less than 5% of Zhejiang Yiming Food is held by institutional investors. This suggests that some funds have the company in their sights, but many have not yet bought shares in it. If the business gets stronger from here, we could see a situation where more institutions are keen to buy. When multiple institutional investors want to buy shares, we often see a rising share price. The past revenue trajectory (shown below) can be an indication of future growth, but there are no guarantees.

Zhejiang Yiming Food is not owned by hedge funds. Zhejiang Mingchun Investment Co., Ltd. is currently the largest shareholder, with 40% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 27% and 7.9% of the stock. Two of the top three shareholders happen to be Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board of Directors, respectively. That is, insiders feature higher up in the heirarchy of the company's top shareholders.

To make our study more interesting, we found that the top 2 shareholders have a majority ownership in the company, meaning that they are powerful enough to influence the decisions of the company.

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. 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 Zhejiang Yiming Food

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

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.

Our information suggests that insiders maintain a significant holding in Zhejiang Yiming Food Co., Ltd.. Insiders own CN¥1.7b worth of shares in the CN¥4.5b company. It is great to see insiders so invested in the business. It might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying recently.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 14% 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 46%, of the Zhejiang Yiming 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:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Zhejiang Yiming Food better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 2 warning signs for Zhejiang Yiming Food that you should be aware of.

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.