In This Article:
Key Insights
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Significantly high institutional ownership implies Exxon Mobil's stock price is sensitive to their trading actions
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44% of the business is held by the top 25 shareholders
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Using data from analyst forecasts alongside ownership research, one can better assess the future performance of a company
A look at the shareholders of Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) can tell us which group is most powerful. We can see that institutions own the lion's share in the company with 65% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).
Because institutional owners have a huge pool of resources and liquidity, their investing decisions tend to carry a great deal of weight, especially with individual investors. As a result, a sizeable amount of institutional money invested in a firm is generally viewed as a positive attribute.
In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Exxon Mobil.
View our latest analysis for Exxon Mobil
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Exxon Mobil?
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 Exxon Mobil does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. 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 Exxon Mobil's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.
Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. Hedge funds don't have many shares in Exxon Mobil. The Vanguard Group, Inc. is currently the company's largest shareholder with 9.8% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 7.0% and 5.0% of the stock.
On studying our ownership data, we found that 25 of the top shareholders collectively own less than 50% of the share register, implying that no single individual has a majority interest.
Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. There are a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future.