'Donghak Gaemi' Surpasses 10% Stake in Samsung Electronics, Exceeding National Pension Service

[Asia Economy Reporter Park So-yeon] The number of Samsung Electronics shares held by individual investors has surpassed 600 million, with individual ownership exceeding 10% for the first time.

According to the financial investment industry on the 2nd, as of the 30th of last month, the number of Samsung Electronics shares (common stock) held by individuals was 605.33 million shares, with a stake of 10.13%.

This is the first time that individual ownership of Samsung Electronics has exceeded 10%.

This figure is higher than that of institutional investors (excluding the National Pension Service) as well as the National Pension Service's stake.

The National Pension Service, which held a 10.70% stake in Samsung Electronics at the end of last year, announced in March that its stake had fallen below 10%.

Since March, pension funds have net sold more than 30 million Samsung Electronics shares. Considering that the National Pension Service accounts for an absolute proportion of pension funds, the National Pension Service's stake in Samsung Electronics is estimated to be about 9.5%.

Institutional investors excluding the National Pension Service hold a 4.58% stake in Samsung Electronics, which is significantly lower than that of individuals.

Individual ownership of Samsung Electronics has increased about threefold compared to the end of 2019 (3.62%).

Individual ownership rose from 2.87% at the end of 2017 to 5.76% at the end of 2018, then decreased to 3.62% at the end of 2019. However, during the COVID-19 phase last year, individuals massively net purchased shares, increasing their stake to 6.48% by the end of last year.

Since the beginning of this year, individuals have aggressively accumulated 218.14 million shares (3.65%) over four months. In particular, they net purchased more than 13 million shares over the recent four days, pushing their stake above 10%.

The value of Samsung Electronics shares net purchased by individuals this year amounts to 18.4336 trillion KRW. This accounts for 42.3% of the total net purchases by individuals in the KOSPI market this year, which is 43.5521 trillion KRW.

Samsung-related parties, including the Samsung family and Samsung Life Insurance, hold a 21.17% stake in Samsung Electronics. The foreign ownership ratio decreased from 55.73% at the end of last year to 54.61%.

With ownership exceeding 10%, individuals have emerged as the second most influential investors on Samsung Electronics' stock price after foreigners.

On the 30th of last month, Samsung Electronics' stock closed at 81,500 KRW. Despite net selling pressure from foreigners, institutions, and the National Pension Service this year, the stock price maintained the level of the end of last year (81,000 KRW). This was because individuals absorbed all the selling volume.

At the end of last year, there were 2.14 million individual investors holding Samsung Electronics shares. With a significant increase in the number of investors this year, the industry estimates that the current number exceeds 3 million by a large margin.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.