The big shareholder groups in California BanCorp (NASDAQ:CALB) have power over the company. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders. I generally like to see some degree of insider ownership, even if only a little. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb said, 'Don’t tell me what you think, tell me what you have in your portfolio.
With a market capitalization of US$143m, California BanCorp is a small cap stock, so it might not be well known by many institutional investors. Our analysis of the ownership of the company, below, shows that institutions own shares in the company. Let's delve deeper into each type of owner, to discover more about California BanCorp.
View our latest analysis for California BanCorp
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About California BanCorp?
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.
California BanCorp already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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. 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 California BanCorp, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.
Our data indicates that hedge funds own 9.8% of California BanCorp. That's interesting, because hedge funds can be quite active and activist. Many look for medium term catalysts that will drive the share price higher. Endeavour Capital Advisors Inc. is currently the largest shareholder, with 9.8% of shares outstanding. Banc Funds Company, L.L.C. is the second largest shareholder owning 9.0% of common stock, and AllianceBernstein L.P. holds about 5.3% of the company stock.
After doing some more digging, we found that the top 12 have the combined ownership of 50% in the company, suggesting that no single shareholder has significant control over the company.
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 is a little analyst coverage of the stock, but not much. So there is room for it to gain more coverage.