Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by individual investors in Hutchison Port Holdings Trust indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy

• A total of 6 investors have a majority stake in the company with 51% ownership

• Analyst forecasts along with ownership data serve to give a strong idea about prospects for a business

A look at the shareholders of Hutchison Port Holdings Trust (SGX:NS8U) can tell us which group is most powerful. We can see that individual investors own the lion's share in the company with 46% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

As market cap fell to US$1.3b last week, individual investors would have faced the highest losses than any other shareholder groups of the company.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Hutchison Port Holdings Trust.

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Hutchison Port Holdings Trust?

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.

We can see that Hutchison Port Holdings Trust does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of Hutchison Port Holdings Trust, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Hutchison Port Holdings Trust is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is CK Hutchison Holdings Limited with 30% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 14% and 2.2% of the stock.

We did some more digging and found that 6 of the top shareholders account for roughly 51% of the register, implying that along with larger shareholders, there are a few smaller shareholders, thereby balancing out each others interests somewhat.

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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Hutchison Port Holdings Trust

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. 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.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own less than 1% of Hutchison Port Holdings Trust. We do note, however, it is possible insiders have an indirect interest through a private company or other corporate structure. Keep in mind that it's a big company, and the insiders own US$201k worth of shares. The absolute value might be more important than the proportional share. It is good to see board members owning shares, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 46% 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 14%, of the Hutchison Port Holdings Trust 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.

Public Company Ownership

It appears to us that public companies own 30% of Hutchison Port Holdings Trust. We can't be certain but it is quite possible this is a strategic stake. The businesses may be similar, or work together.