Key Insights

• The considerable ownership by individual investors in Summit Financial Group indicates that they collectively have a greater say in management and business strategy

• The top 25 shareholders own 39% of the company

• Insiders own 13% of Summit Financial Group

If you want to know who really controls Summit Financial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMMF), 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 53% to be precise, is individual investors. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

Institutions, on the other hand, account for 34% of the company's stockholders. Generally speaking, as a company grows, institutions will increase their ownership. Conversely, insiders often decrease their ownership over time.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Summit Financial Group.

See our latest analysis for Summit Financial Group

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Summit Financial Group?

Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Summit Financial Group. 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. 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 Summit Financial Group, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Summit Financial Group. The company's largest shareholder is BlackRock, Inc., with ownership of 5.2%. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 4.8% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 3.8% by the third-largest shareholder. Additionally, the company's CEO H. Maddy directly holds 0.8% of the total shares outstanding.

A deeper look at our ownership data shows that the top 25 shareholders collectively hold less than half of the register, suggesting a large group of small holders where 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. There is some analyst coverage of the stock, but it could still become more well known, with time.