With 38% stake, Citizens Community Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:CZWI) seems to have captured institutional investors' interest
Key Insights
Significantly high institutional ownership implies Citizens Community Bancorp's stock price is sensitive to their trading actions
51% of the business is held by the top 15 shareholders
A look at the shareholders of Citizens Community Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:CZWI) can tell us which group is most powerful. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 38% to be precise, is institutions. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.
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 take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Citizens Community Bancorp.
See our latest analysis for Citizens Community Bancorp
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Citizens Community Bancorp?
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.
We can see that Citizens Community Bancorp does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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 Citizens Community Bancorp's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.
It would appear that 9.1% of Citizens Community Bancorp shares are controlled by hedge funds. 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. FJ Capital Management, LLC is currently the company's largest shareholder with 9.1% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 8.4% and 7.7% of the stock. Furthermore, CEO Stephen Bianchi is the owner of 1.1% of the company's shares.
After doing some more digging, we found that the top 15 have the combined ownership of 51% in the company, suggesting that no single shareholder has significant control over the company.
While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.
Insider Ownership Of Citizens Community Bancorp
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.
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.
Shareholders would probably be interested to learn that insiders own shares in Citizens Community Bancorp, Inc.. It has a market capitalization of just US$126m, and insiders have US$9.0m worth of shares, in their own names. 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
With a 37% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Citizens Community Bancorp. 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.
Private Equity Ownership
With a stake of 8.4%, private equity firms could influence the Citizens Community Bancorp board. Some might like this, because private equity are sometimes activists who hold management accountable. But other times, private equity is selling out, having taking the company public.
Next Steps:
It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Citizens Community Bancorp better, we need to consider many other factors. Take risks for example - Citizens Community Bancorp has 1 warning sign we think you should be aware of.
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.
Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.
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.
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