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A look at the shareholders of First United Corporation (NASDAQ:FUNC) can tell us which group is most powerful. With 59% stake, individual investors possess the maximum shares in the company. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).
Meanwhile, institutions make up 35% of the company’s shareholders. 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 take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about First United.
Check out our latest analysis for First United
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About First United?
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.
First United 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. 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 First United's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.
We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in First United. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Dimensional Fund Advisors LP with 5.0% of shares outstanding. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 4.5% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 3.9% by the third-largest shareholder.
Our studies suggest that the top 25 shareholders collectively control less than half of the company's shares, meaning that the company's shares are widely disseminated and there is no dominant shareholder.
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. We're not picking up on any analyst coverage of the stock at the moment, so the company is unlikely to be widely held.
Insider Ownership Of First United
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. 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.