CNFinance Holdings Limited's (NYSE:CNF) last week's 41% decline must have disappointed retail investors who have a significant stake

Key Insights

• CNFinance Holdings' significant retail investors ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• 44% of the business is held by the top 25 shareholders
• Insider ownership in CNFinance Holdings is 16%

This technology could replace computers: discover the 20 stocks are working to make quantum computing a reality.

If you want to know who really controls CNFinance Holdings Limited (NYSE:CNF), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. We can see that retail investors own the lion's share in the company with 56% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

As a result, retail investors as a group endured the highest losses last week after market cap fell by US$117m.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about CNFinance Holdings.

See our latest analysis for CNFinance Holdings

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About CNFinance Holdings?

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.

CNFinance Holdings already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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. 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 CNFinance Holdings, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

CNFinance Holdings is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Kylin Investment Holdings Limited with 18% of shares outstanding. Selwyn Sussman is the second largest shareholder owning 10% of common stock, and Paul Wolansky holds about 4.8% of the company stock.

A deeper look at our ownership data shows that the top 25 shareholders collectively hold less than half of the register, suggesting a large group of small holders where no single shareholder has a majority.

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. 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 CNFinance Holdings

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.

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

Our information suggests that insiders maintain a significant holding in CNFinance Holdings Limited. It has a market capitalization of just US$165m, and insiders have US$26m worth of shares in their own names. 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, mostly comprising of individual investors, collectively holds 56% of CNFinance Holdings shares. This level of ownership gives investors from the wider public some power to sway key policy decisions such as board composition, executive compensation, and the dividend payout ratio.

Private Company Ownership

Our data indicates that Private Companies hold 18%, of the company's shares. It might be worth looking deeper into this. If related parties, such as insiders, have an interest in one of these private companies, that should be disclosed in the annual report. Private companies may also have a strategic interest in the company.

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. For instance, we've identified 3 warning signs for CNFinance Holdings (2 are a bit concerning) 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.