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Meitu, Inc.'s (HKG:1357) 13% loss last week hit both individual investors who own 46% as well as institutions

Simply Wall St · 2d ago

Key Insights

  • Significant control over Meitu by retail investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
  • 50% of the business is held by the top 17 shareholders
  • Insiders have been selling lately

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Every investor in Meitu, Inc. (HKG:1357) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. With 46% stake, retail investors possess the maximum shares in the company. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

While the holdings of retail investors took a hit after last week’s 13% price drop, institutions with their 31% holdings also suffered.

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

View our latest analysis for Meitu

ownership-breakdown
SEHK:1357 Ownership Breakdown December 8th 2025

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Meitu?

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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Meitu. 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. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see Meitu's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

earnings-and-revenue-growth
SEHK:1357 Earnings and Revenue Growth December 8th 2025

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Meitu. With a 13% stake, CEO Zeyuan Wu is the largest shareholder. With 10.0% and 6.1% of the shares outstanding respectively, Wen Sheng Cai and Fullgoal Fund Management Co. Ltd. are the second and third largest shareholders.

Looking at the shareholder registry, we can see that 50% of the ownership is controlled by the top 17 shareholders, meaning that no single shareholder has a majority interest in the ownership.

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 Meitu

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

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 Meitu, Inc.. It has a market capitalization of just HK$34b, and insiders have HK$7.8b worth of shares in their own names. That's quite significant. Most would say this shows a good degree of alignment with shareholders, especially in a company of this size. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 46% stake in Meitu. 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:

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. Be aware that Meitu is showing 2 warning signs in our investment analysis , you should know about...

But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter future.

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.