Are Institutions Heavily Invested In Fidelity National Financial, Inc.’s (NYSE:FNF) Shares? – Yahoo Finance

Every investor in Fidelity National Financial, Inc. (NYSE:FNF) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders. We also tend to see lower insider ownership in companies that were previously publicly owned.

Fidelity National Financial has a market capitalization of US$9.7b, so it's too big to fly under the radar. We'd expect to see both institutions and retail investors owning a portion of the company. In the chart below, we can see that institutional investors have bought into the company. Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Fidelity National Financial.

View our latest analysis for Fidelity National Financial

Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices.

Fidelity National Financial 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. 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 Fidelity National Financial, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences. Hedge funds don't have many shares in Fidelity National Financial. The company's largest shareholder is BlackRock, Inc., with ownership of 9.3%. With 9.3% and 5.8% of the shares outstanding respectively, The Vanguard Group, Inc. and Principal Global Investors, LLC are the second and third largest shareholders. In addition, we found that Raymond Quirk, the CEO has 0.6% of the shares allocated to his name

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Looking at the shareholder registry, we can see that 51% of the ownership is controlled by the top 19 shareholders, meaning that no single shareholder has a majority interest in the ownership.

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 are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

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.

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.

We can see that insiders own shares in Fidelity National Financial, Inc.. It is a very large company, and board members collectively own US$466m worth of shares (at current prices). I sometimes take an interest in whether they have been buying or selling.

With a 10% ownership, the general public have some degree of sway over Fidelity National Financial. 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.

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Take risks for example - Fidelity National Financial has 3 warning signs we think 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.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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.

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Are Institutions Heavily Invested In Fidelity National Financial, Inc.'s (NYSE:FNF) Shares? - Yahoo Finance