Ownership research along with analyst forecasts data help provide a good understanding of opportunities in a stock

A look at the shareholders of GDS Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:GDS) can tell us which group is most powerful. With 45% stake, institutions 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.

Losing money on investments is something no shareholder enjoys, least of all institutional investors who saw their holdings value drop by 17% last week. However, the 63% one-year return to shareholders may have helped lessen their pain. But they would probably be wary of future losses.

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

Check out our latest analysis for GDS 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.

We can see that GDS Holdings does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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 GDS Holdings, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in GDS Holdings. Our data shows that STT GDC Pte. Ltd. is the largest shareholder with 39% of shares outstanding. Wei Huang is the second largest shareholder owning 3.5% of common stock, and GIC Private Limited holds about 3.4% of the company stock. Wei Huang, who is the second-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Chief Executive Officer.

Our research also brought to light the fact that roughly 52% of the company is controlled by the top 5 shareholders suggesting that these owners wield significant influence on the business.

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.