Key Insights

• Hunan Heshun PetroleumLtd'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 67% ownership
• 30% of Hunan Heshun PetroleumLtd is held by insiders

If you want to know who really controls Hunan Heshun Petroleum Co.,Ltd. (SHSE:603353), 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 43% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

While private companies were the group that benefitted the most from last week's CN¥390m market cap gain, insiders too had a 30% share in those profits.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Hunan Heshun PetroleumLtd, beginning with the chart below.

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Hunan Heshun PetroleumLtd?

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 Hunan Heshun PetroleumLtd, 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. 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.

Hunan Heshun PetroleumLtd is not owned by hedge funds. Hunan Heshun Investment Development Co., Ltd. is currently the largest shareholder, with 42% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 25% and 3.9% of the stock. Xiaozhen Long, who is the third-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Member of the Board of Directors.

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.

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. As far as we can tell there isn't analyst coverage of the company, so it is probably flying under the radar.

Insider Ownership Of Hunan Heshun PetroleumLtd

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 most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of Hunan Heshun Petroleum Co.,Ltd.. Insiders own CN¥857m worth of shares in the CN¥2.9b 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, who are usually individual investors, hold a 26% stake in Hunan Heshun PetroleumLtd. 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

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 43%, of the company's shares. 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:

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. To that end, you should learn about the 3 warning signs we've spotted with Hunan Heshun PetroleumLtd (including 1 which makes us a bit uncomfortable) .

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this 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.