Brookline Bancorp, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:BRKL) one-year returns climbed after last week's 6.6% gain, institutional investors must be happy

Key Insights

• Institutions' substantial holdings in Brookline Bancorp implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price
• The top 8 shareholders own 52% of the company
• Insiders have been selling lately

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Brookline Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRKL), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. With 79% stake, institutions possess the maximum shares in the company. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

And last week, institutional investors ended up benefitting the most after the company hit US$857m in market cap. The one-year return on investment is currently 2.7% and last week's gain would have been more than welcomed.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Brookline Bancorp.

See our latest analysis for Brookline Bancorp

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Brookline 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.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Brookline Bancorp. 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. 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 Brookline Bancorp's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. Brookline Bancorp is not owned by hedge funds. Our data shows that BlackRock, Inc. is the largest shareholder with 15% of shares outstanding. With 11% and 5.6% of the shares outstanding respectively, The Vanguard Group, Inc. and Dimensional Fund Advisors LP are the second and third largest shareholders. In addition, we found that Paul Perrault, the CEO has 0.6% of the shares allocated to their name.

On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 8 shareholders, suggesting that the interests of the larger shareholders are balanced out to an extent by the smaller ones.

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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Brookline Bancorp

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. 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.

We can report that insiders do own shares in Brookline Bancorp, Inc.. In their own names, insiders own US$26m worth of stock in the US$857m company. Some would say this shows alignment of interests between shareholders and the board. 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 18% stake in Brookline Bancorp. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Brookline Bancorp better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 2 warning signs for Brookline Bancorp that you should be aware of before investing here.

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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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.