Key Insights

• Insiders appear to have a vested interest in FinVolution Group's growth, as seen by their sizeable ownership
• 50% of the business is held by the top 4 shareholders
• Institutional ownership in FinVolution Group is 30%

If you want to know who really controls FinVolution Group (NYSE:FINV), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. We can see that individual insiders own the lion's share in the company with 47% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Clearly, insiders benefitted the most after the company's market cap rose by US$65m last week.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of FinVolution Group, beginning with the chart below.

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About FinVolution 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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in FinVolution Group. This implies the analysts working for those institutions have looked at the stock and they like it. But just like anyone else, they could be wrong. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at FinVolution Group's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in FinVolution Group. From our data, we infer that the largest shareholder is Shaofeng Gu (who also holds the title of Top Key Executive) with 33% of shares outstanding. Its usually considered a good sign when insiders own a significant number of shares in the company, and in this case, we're glad to see a company insider play the role of a key stakeholder. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 6.7% and 6.3% of the stock. Interestingly, the second-largest shareholder, Jun Zhang is also Top Key Executive, again, pointing towards strong insider ownership amongst the company's top shareholders. Additionally, the company's CEO Tiezheng Li directly holds 2.8% of the total shares outstanding.

Our research also brought to light the fact that roughly 50% of the company is controlled by the top 4 shareholders suggesting that these owners wield significant influence on the business.

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 a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future.

Insider Ownership Of FinVolution Group

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.

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.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of FinVolution Group. Insiders own US$757m worth of shares in the US$1.6b company. That's quite meaningful. It is good to see this level of investment. You can check here to see if those insiders have been buying recently.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 24% stake in FinVolution Group. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand FinVolution Group better, we need to consider many other factors. Be aware that FinVolution Group is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those makes us a bit uncomfortable...

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.