Key Insights
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Significant control over BankFinancial by retail investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions
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The top 9 shareholders own 52% of the company
If you want to know who really controls BankFinancial Corporation (NASDAQ:BFIN), then you’ll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 33% to be precise, is retail investors. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.
Institutions, on the other hand, account for 33% of the company’s stockholders. Generally speaking, as a company grows, institutions will increase their ownership. Conversely, insiders often decrease their ownership over time.
Let’s take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about BankFinancial.
Check out our latest analysis for BankFinancial
What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About BankFinancial?
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.
We can see that BankFinancial 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. When multiple institutions own a stock, there’s always a risk that they are in a ‘crowded trade’. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see BankFinancial’s historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there’s always more to the story.
Our data indicates that hedge funds own 20% of BankFinancial. 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. Our data shows that M3F, Inc. is the largest shareholder with 9.3% of shares outstanding. The second and third largest shareholders are Dimensional Fund Advisors LP and BankFinancial Corp. ESOP, with an equal amount of shares to their name at 6.9%. Additionally, the company’s CEO F. Gasior directly holds 2.6% of the total shares outstanding.
On further inspection, we found that more than half the company’s shares are owned by the top 9 shareholders, suggesting that the interests of the larger shareholders are balanced out to an extent by the smaller ones.
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 is some analyst coverage of the stock, but it could still become more well known, with time.
Insider Ownership Of BankFinancial
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.
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 BankFinancial Corporation. In their own names, insiders own US$8.7m worth of stock in the US$124m company. 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, who are usually individual investors, hold a 33% stake in BankFinancial. While this group can’t necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.
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.
I like to dive deeper into how a company has performed in the past. You can access this interactive graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow, for free.
If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.
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.
Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com
