Significant control over SB Financial Group by retail investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
A total of 12 investors have a majority stake in the company with 52% ownership
To get a sense of who is truly in control of SB Financial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:SBFG), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are retail investors with 39% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).
Institutions, on the other hand, account for 34% of the company's stockholders. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders.
Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about SB Financial Group.
NasdaqCM:SBFG Ownership Breakdown December 18th 2024
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About SB Financial Group?
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 SB Financial Group. 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 SB Financial Group, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.
NasdaqCM:SBFG Earnings and Revenue Growth December 18th 2024
Our data indicates that hedge funds own 17% of SB Financial Group. 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. AllianceBernstein L.P. is currently the company's largest shareholder with 8.8% of shares outstanding. Manulife Asset Management is the second largest shareholder owning 7.3% of common stock, and Cutler Capital Management, LLC holds about 6.0% of the company stock. Additionally, the company's CEO Mark Klein directly holds 1.6% of the total shares outstanding.
After doing some more digging, we found that the top 12 have the combined ownership of 52% 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 some analyst coverage of the stock, but it could still become more well known, with time.
Insider Ownership Of SB Financial Group
While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. The company management answer to the board and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board themselves.
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.
We can report that insiders do own shares in SB Financial Group, Inc.. It has a market capitalization of just US$150m, and insiders have US$7.4m worth of shares, in their own names. Some would say this shows alignment of interests between shareholders and the board, though we generally prefer to see bigger insider holdings. But it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.
General Public Ownership
The general public-- including retail investors -- own 39% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. 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:
It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand SB Financial Group better, we need to consider many other factors.
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.
