With 52% ownership, Southern Missouri Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBC) boasts of strong institutional backing

Yahoo

25-03-2025

Significantly high institutional ownership implies Southern Missouri Bancorp's stock price is sensitive to their trading actions
51% of the business is held by the top 17 shareholders
Insiders have sold recently
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To get a sense of who is truly in control of Southern Missouri Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMBC), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. We can see that institutions own the lion's share in the company with 52% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).
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.
In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Southern Missouri Bancorp.
View our latest analysis for Southern Missouri Bancorp
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.
Southern Missouri Bancorp already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. 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 Southern Missouri Bancorp's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.
Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences. We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Southern Missouri Bancorp. The company's largest shareholder is FMR LLC, with ownership of 7.2%. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 6.9% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 5.3% by the third-largest shareholder. Furthermore, CEO Greg Steffens is the owner of 2.6% of the company's shares.
A closer look at our ownership figures suggests that the top 17 shareholders have a combined ownership of 51% implying that no single shareholder has a majority.
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.
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.
It seems insiders own a significant proportion of Southern Missouri Bancorp, Inc.. Insiders own US$99m worth of shares in the US$597m company. It is great to see insiders so invested in the business. It might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying recently.
The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 31% stake in Southern Missouri Bancorp. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.
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. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for Southern Missouri Bancorp that you should be aware of.
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.
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