Atour Lifestyle Holdings Limited's (NASDAQ:ATAT) largest shareholders are private equity firms with 32% ownership, insiders own 29%
Key Insights
The considerable ownership by private equity firms in Atour Lifestyle Holdings indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
A total of 3 investors have a majority stake in the company with 51% ownership
If you want to know who really controls Atour Lifestyle Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:ATAT), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 32% to be precise, is private equity firms. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.
Individual insiders, on the other hand, account for 29% of the company's stockholders. Institutions often own shares in more established companies, while it's not unusual to see insiders own a fair bit of smaller companies.
Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Atour Lifestyle Holdings.
See our latest analysis for Atour Lifestyle Holdings
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Atour Lifestyle Holdings?
Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.
We can see that Atour Lifestyle Holdings 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. 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 Atour Lifestyle Holdings, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.
Hedge funds don't have many shares in Atour Lifestyle Holdings. With a 19% stake, CEO Haijun Wang is the largest shareholder. With 17% and 15% of the shares outstanding respectively, Legend Capital Management Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Divine Investment Management Co., Ltd. are the second and third largest shareholders.
After doing some more digging, we found that the top 3 shareholders collectively control more than half of the company's shares, implying that they have considerable power to influence the company's decisions.
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 Atour Lifestyle 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.
It seems insiders own a significant proportion of Atour Lifestyle Holdings Limited. It has a market capitalization of just US$2.3b, and insiders have US$677m worth of shares in their own names. That's quite significant. 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-- including retail investors -- own 16% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.
Private Equity Ownership
With an ownership of 32%, private equity firms are in a position to play a role in shaping corporate strategy with a focus on value creation. Sometimes we see private equity stick around for the long term, but generally speaking they have a shorter investment horizon and -- as the name suggests -- don't invest in public companies much. After some time they may look to sell and redeploy capital elsewhere.
Public Company Ownership
We can see that public companies hold 14% of the Atour Lifestyle Holdings shares on issue. This may be a strategic interest and the two companies may have related business interests. It could be that they have de-merged. This holding is probably worth investigating further.
Next Steps:
It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Atour Lifestyle Holdings better, we need to consider many other factors. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for Atour Lifestyle Holdings that you should be aware of.
Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.
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.
