July 8, 2014 2:49pm
These can differ somewhat among the various institutions holding a company's stock, resulting in differences that could impact the reported % for institutional holdings. The data presented is updated quarterly <an approximate lag of four weeks>. And as a result, even a slight imprecision in the reporting dates among one or more institutions could throw off the count.
When it comes to common stocks, institutional ownership is often expressed as a % of a firm's outstanding shares.
Many investors regard institutional support for a security as a sign of approval, and institutional accumulation of a stock can raise its price considerably. However, other investors believe that once many institutions have piled into a company's shares, it is too late to realize substantial gains. These investors deliberately seek investments with little or no institutional ownership under the assumption that bigger traders will soon "discover" the security and push its price higher.
Just as rising institutional ownership can lift a security's price, decreasing ownership can sometimes trigger a collapse in the shares.
