Key Insights

Institutions' substantial holdings in American Financial Group implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price 52% of the business is held by the top 10 shareholders Insiders have bought recently

We've discovered 1 warning sign about American Financial Group. View them for free.

A look at the shareholders of American Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:AFG) can tell us which group is most powerful. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are institutions with 68% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

And things are looking up for institutional investors after the company gained US$401m in market cap last week. The gains from last week would have further boosted the one-year return to shareholders which currently stand at 1.5%.

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

View our latest analysis for American Financial Group NYSE:AFG Ownership Breakdown May 17th 2025

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

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.

American Financial Group 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. 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 American Financial Group's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.NYSE:AFG Earnings and Revenue Growth May 17th 2025

Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. Hedge funds don't have many shares in American Financial Group. The Vanguard Group, Inc. is currently the largest shareholder, with 9.5% of shares outstanding. BlackRock, Inc. is the second largest shareholder owning 9.2% of common stock, and Carl Lindner holds about 7.0% of the company stock. Carl Lindner, who is the third-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Member of the Board of Directors. Additionally, the company's CEO Stephen Lindner directly holds 6.4% of the total shares outstanding.

Story Continues

On further inspection, we found that more than half the company's shares are owned by the top 10 shareholders, suggesting that the interests of the larger shareholders are balanced out to an extent by the smaller ones.

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

Insider Ownership Of American Financial Group

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

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.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own a reasonable proportion of American Financial Group, Inc.. Insiders own US$1.9b worth of shares in the US$10b company. That's quite meaningful. Most would say this shows a good degree of alignment with shareholders, especially in a company of this size. 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 13% stake in American Financial Group. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand American Financial Group better, we need to consider many other factors. For example, we've discovered 1 warning sign for American Financial Group that you should be aware of before investing here.

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.

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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.

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