Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC) is largely controlled by institutional shareholders who own 71% of the company

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editorial-team@simplywallst.com (Simply Wall St)

Wed, Jan 15, 2025, 7:28 AM 4 min read

If you want to know who really controls Eastern Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBC), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. We can see that institutions own the lion's share in the company with 71% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Since institutional have access to huge amounts of capital, their market moves tend to receive a lot of scrutiny by retail or individual investors. Hence, having a considerable amount of institutional money invested in a company is often regarded as a desirable trait.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Eastern Bankshares, beginning with the chart below.

View our latest analysis for Eastern Bankshares

ownership-breakdown — NasdaqGS:EBC Ownership Breakdown January 15th 2025

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Eastern Bankshares?

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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Eastern Bankshares. 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. 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 Eastern Bankshares' earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

earnings-and-revenue-growth — NasdaqGS:EBC Earnings and Revenue Growth January 15th 2025

Investors should note that institutions actually own more than half the company, so they can collectively wield significant power. Eastern Bankshares is not owned by hedge funds. The company's largest shareholder is The Vanguard Group, Inc., with ownership of 9.9%. With 9.1% and 7.6% of the shares outstanding respectively, FMR LLC and BlackRock, Inc. are the second and third largest shareholders.

We did some more digging and found that 10 of the top shareholders account for roughly 52% of the register, implying that along with larger shareholders, there are a few smaller shareholders, thereby balancing out each others interests somewhat.

While it makes sense to study institutional ownership data for a company, it also makes sense to study analyst sentiments to know which way the wind is blowing. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Eastern Bankshares

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.

Shareholders would probably be interested to learn that insiders own shares in Eastern Bankshares, Inc.. This is a big company, so it is good to see this level of alignment. Insiders own US$43m worth of shares (at current prices). Most would say this shows alignment of interests between shareholders and the board. Still, it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 21% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Eastern Bankshares better, we need to consider many other factors. To that end, you should be aware of the 1 warning sign we've spotted with Eastern Bankshares .

If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its 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.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.