Is Greene County Bancorp, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GCBC) Shareholder Ownership Skewed Towards Insiders?

Simply Wall St

Sun, Apr 10, 2022, 6:06 AM 4 min read

If you want to know who really controls Greene County Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:GCBC), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders. I quite like to see at least a little bit of insider ownership. As Charlie Munger said 'Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome.

Greene County Bancorp is a smaller company with a market capitalization of US$417m, so it may still be flying under the radar of many institutional investors. Our analysis of the ownership of the company, below, shows that institutional investors have bought into the company. Let's delve deeper into each type of owner, to discover more about Greene County Bancorp.

Check out our latest analysis for Greene County Bancorp

ownership-breakdown — NasdaqCM:GCBC Ownership Breakdown April 10th 2022

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Greene County Bancorp?

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.

Greene County Bancorp already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. 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 Greene County Bancorp's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

earnings-and-revenue-growth — NasdaqCM:GCBC Earnings and Revenue Growth April 10th 2022

Hedge funds don't have many shares in Greene County Bancorp. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Greene County Bancorp, MHC with 54% of shares outstanding. This essentially means that they have extensive influence, if not outright control, over the future of the corporation. FMR LLC is the second largest shareholder owning 3.1% of common stock, and The Vanguard Group, Inc. holds about 1.4% of the company stock. In addition, we found that Donald Gibson, the CEO has 1.1% of the shares allocated to their name.

While it makes sense to study institutional ownership data for a company, it also makes sense to study analyst sentiments to know which way the wind is blowing. Our information suggests that there isn't any analyst coverage of the stock, so it is probably little known.

Insider Ownership Of Greene County 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.

Shareholders would probably be interested to learn that insiders own shares in Greene County Bancorp, Inc.. As individuals, the insiders collectively own US$28m worth of the US$417m 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 32% stake in Greene County 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 Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 54%, of the shares on issue. It might be worth looking deeper into this. If related parties, such as insiders, have an interest in one of these private companies, that should be disclosed in the annual report. Private companies may also have a strategic interest in the company.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Case in point: We've spotted 1 warning sign for Greene County Bancorp you should be aware of.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies.

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.