Individual investors who have a significant stake must be disappointed along with institutions after Mizuno Corporation's (TSE:8022) market cap dropped by JP¥9.1b

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by individual investors in Mizuno indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• The top 20 shareholders own 50% of the company
• Institutional ownership in Mizuno is 32%

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To get a sense of who is truly in control of Mizuno Corporation (TSE:8022), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 47% to be precise, is individual investors. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

Following a 4.6% decrease in the stock price last week, individual investors suffered the most losses, but institutions who own 32% stock also took a hit.

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

Check out our latest analysis for Mizuno

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Mizuno?

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.

We can see that Mizuno does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. 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 Mizuno's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Mizuno. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Mizuno Sports Promotion Foundation, Endowment Arm with 17% of shares outstanding. With 4.8% and 3.8% of the shares outstanding respectively, Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company, Limited and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., Asset Management Arm are the second and third largest shareholders.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 20 have the combined ownership of 50% in the company, suggesting that no single shareholder has significant control over the company.

While it makes sense to study institutional ownership data for a company, it also makes sense to study analyst sentiments to know which way the wind is blowing. 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 Mizuno

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.

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 Mizuno Corporation. It is a pretty big company, so it would be possible for board members to own a meaningful interest in the company, without owning much of a proportional interest. In this case, they own around JP¥1.2b worth of shares (at current prices). 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 47% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. This size of ownership, while considerable, may not be enough to change company policy if the decision is not in sync with other large shareholders.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Case in point: We've spotted 1 warning sign for Mizuno you should be aware of.

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.