Provident Bancorp, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:PVBC) largest shareholders are individual investors with 40% ownership, institutions own 37%

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

Sun, Mar 17, 2024, 6:59 AM 4 min read

Key Insights

Provident Bancorp's significant individual investors ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
51% of the business is held by the top 15 shareholders
37% of Provident Bancorp is held by Institutions

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Provident Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:PVBC), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are individual investors with 40% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Institutions, on the other hand, account for 37% of the company's stockholders. Institutions often own shares in more established companies, while it's not unusual to see insiders own a fair bit of smaller companies.

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

See our latest analysis for Provident Bancorp

ownership-breakdown — NasdaqCM:PVBC Ownership Breakdown March 17th 2024

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Provident Bancorp?

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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Provident Bancorp. 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 Provident Bancorp, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

earnings-and-revenue-growth — NasdaqCM:PVBC Earnings and Revenue Growth March 17th 2024

It would appear that 19% of Provident Bancorp shares are controlled by hedge funds. That worth noting, since hedge funds are often quite active investors, who may try to influence management. Many want to see value creation (and a higher share price) in the short term or medium term. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Stilwell Value LLC with 10% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 9.7% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 8.8% by the third-largest shareholder.

A closer look at our ownership figures suggests that the top 15 shareholders have a combined ownership of 51% implying that no single shareholder has a majority.

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. There is a little analyst coverage of the stock, but not much. So there is room for it to gain more coverage.

Insider Ownership Of Provident Bancorp

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. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

We can see that insiders own shares in Provident Bancorp, Inc.. In their own names, insiders own US$6.0m worth of stock in the US$159m company. It is good to see some investment by insiders, but we usually like to see higher insider holdings. It might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 40% stake in Provident Bancorp. This size of ownership, while considerable, may not be enough to change company policy if the decision is not in sync with other large shareholders.

Next Steps:

I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Take risks for example - Provident Bancorp has 1 warning sign we think you should be aware of.

But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter 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.