Institutions along with retail investors who hold considerable shares inAmerant Bancorp Inc. (NYSE:AMTB) come under pressure; lose 7.6% of holdings value

Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by retail investors in Amerant Bancorp indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy
• The top 21 shareholders own 50% of the company
• 13% of Amerant Bancorp is held by insiders

A look at the shareholders of Amerant Bancorp Inc. (NYSE:AMTB) can tell us which group is most powerful. We can see that retail investors own the lion's share in the company with 45% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

While institutions, who own 36% shares weren’t spared from last week’s US$58m market cap drop, retail investors as a group suffered the maximum losses

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Amerant Bancorp.

View our latest analysis for Amerant Bancorp

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Amerant 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 Amerant Bancorp. 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 Amerant Bancorp's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Amerant Bancorp. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Wellington Management Group LLP with 9.3% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 6.3% and 6.1%, of the shares outstanding, respectively. In addition, we found that Gerald Plush, the CEO has 0.6% of the shares allocated to their name.

A closer look at our ownership figures suggests that the top 21 shareholders have a combined ownership of 50% implying that no single shareholder has a majority.

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 Amerant Bancorp

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.

It seems insiders own a significant proportion of Amerant Bancorp Inc.. Insiders own US$91m worth of shares in the US$710m company. We would say this shows alignment with shareholders, but it is worth noting that the company is still quite small; some insiders may have founded the business. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 45% stake in Amerant 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

Private equity firms hold a 6.3% stake in Amerant Bancorp. This suggests they can be influential in key policy decisions. 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 Amerant Bancorp better, we need to consider many other factors. Case in point: We've spotted 3 warning signs for Amerant Bancorp you should be aware of.

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.

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.