WEBULL

With 49% ownership in First Bank (NASDAQ:FRBA), institutional investors have a lot riding on the business

Simply Wall St · 1d ago

Key Insights

  • Institutions' substantial holdings in First Bank implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price
  • The top 17 shareholders own 51% of the company
  • Past performance of a company along with ownership data serve to give a strong idea about prospects for a business

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Every investor in First Bank (NASDAQ:FRBA) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are institutions with 49% ownership. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

Last week’s 10% gain means that institutional investors were on the positive end of the spectrum even as the company has shown strong longer-term trends. The one-year return on investment is currently 24% and last week's gain would have been more than welcomed.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of First Bank, beginning with the chart below.

Check out our latest analysis for First Bank

ownership-breakdown
NasdaqGM:FRBA Ownership Breakdown December 16th 2025

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About First Bank?

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.

First Bank already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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. 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 First Bank, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

earnings-and-revenue-growth
NasdaqGM:FRBA Earnings and Revenue Growth December 16th 2025

First Bank is not owned by hedge funds. Patriot Financial Manager, L.P. is currently the company's largest shareholder with 8.2% of shares outstanding. BlackRock, Inc. is the second largest shareholder owning 7.6% of common stock, and The Vanguard Group, Inc. holds about 5.1% of the company stock. Furthermore, CEO Patrick Ryan is the owner of 1.5% of the company's shares.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 17 have the combined ownership of 51% in the company, suggesting that no single shareholder has significant control over the company.

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 a little analyst coverage of the stock, but not much. So there is room for it to gain more coverage.

Insider Ownership Of First Bank

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.

We can see that insiders own shares in First Bank. In their own names, insiders own US$40m worth of stock in the US$438m company. It is good to see some investment by insiders, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 34% stake in First Bank. 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

With a stake of 8.2%, private equity firms could influence the First Bank board. Sometimes we see private equity stick around for the long term, but generally speaking they have a shorter investment horizon and -- as the name suggests -- don't invest in public companies much. After some time they may look to sell and redeploy capital elsewhere.

Next Steps:

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.

I like to dive deeper into how a company has performed in the past. You can find historic revenue and earnings in this detailed graph.

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

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.