With 81% ownership of the shares, The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:PNC) is heavily dominated by institutional owners

In this article:

Key Insights

  • Significantly high institutional ownership implies PNC Financial Services Group's stock price is sensitive to their trading actions

  • The top 23 shareholders own 51% of the company

  • Insiders have been selling lately

If you want to know who really controls The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:PNC), 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 81% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

Because institutional owners have a huge pool of resources and liquidity, their investing decisions tend to carry a great deal of weight, especially with individual investors. As a result, a sizeable amount of institutional money invested in a firm is generally viewed as a positive attribute.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about PNC Financial Services Group.

See our latest analysis for PNC Financial Services Group

ownership-breakdown
ownership-breakdown

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About PNC Financial Services Group?

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 PNC Financial Services Group does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. 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. 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 PNC Financial Services Group, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

earnings-and-revenue-growth
earnings-and-revenue-growth

Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences. Hedge funds don't have many shares in PNC Financial Services Group. Our data shows that The Vanguard Group, Inc. is the largest shareholder with 9.5% of shares outstanding. BlackRock, Inc. is the second largest shareholder owning 7.3% of common stock, and T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. holds about 5.1% of the company stock.

Looking at the shareholder registry, we can see that 51% of the ownership is controlled by the top 23 shareholders, meaning that no single shareholder has a majority interest in the ownership.

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. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of PNC Financial Services Group

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

Our data suggests that insiders own under 1% of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. in their own names. Being so large, we would not expect insiders to own a large proportion of the stock. Collectively, they own US$181m of stock. In this sort of situation, it can be more interesting to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 18% stake in PNC Financial Services Group. 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 PNC Financial Services Group better, we need to consider many other factors. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for PNC Financial Services Group you should know about.

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.

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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