Who Owns a Stock? Institutional Ownership From 13F Filings, Quarter by Quarter

Who owns a stock?

Institutional ownership is the share of a company held by investment managers that file SEC Form 13F, the quarterly report of their holdings. SentiSense answers "who owns this stock" from those filings in one view: the largest holders, their share of the company, the notable funds in the roster, and how institutions bought and sold quarter by quarter.

The same answer is available in the app, through the REST API, and through the SentiSense MCP connector in Claude and ChatGPT.

Who owns Apple? A worked example

On October 25, 2026, Apple's last complete quarter was the one ended June 30: 6,089 institutional holders with $2.77 trillion of AAPL. Institutions held 65.7% of Apple's shares outstanding, measured against the share count Apple filed as of August 15, 2026. The ten largest holders together held 34.3%, a figure the Holders view shows on PRO.

Berkshire Hathaway, AQR, Citadel Advisors, D. E. Shaw and Two Sigma all held Apple in the June quarter. Berkshire's 227.9 million shares were unchanged from March.

The Apple Holders view on the June 2026 quarter, marked complete: 6,089 holders, $2.77 trillion held, 65.7% held by institutions, and Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street, Geode and FMR at the top of the holder table

The June quarter, the last complete one. SentiSense app, Apple holders, captured October 25, 2026.

Which quarter does the answer use?

13F reports are due 45 days after each quarter ends, so the newest quarter fills in gradually. Until the deadline passes, a list built from that quarter covers only the managers that have filed so far, and a holder that has not filed yet looks the same as one that sold.

The app opens on the quarter still filing, when there is one, and labels it with the share reported so far: the part of the last complete quarter's value held by managers that have already filed for the new one. That figure counts every manager that has filed, including any that exited the stock, so it measures how complete the new picture is. A link beside the quarter picker opens the last complete quarter, the most recent one whose deadline has passed. The API calls that quarter settled and serves it by default.

On October 25, Apple's Holders view opened on the September 30 quarter at 3% reported, with 2,134 holders so far. Hovering on the percentage shows the deadline, November 16, and notes that a holder not listed may not have filed yet. Any quarter can be chosen from the quarter picker, which marks each one as complete or still filing.

The Apple Holders view on the September 2026 quarter while it is still filing: the picker reads Q3 2026, 3% reported, holders read 2,134 so far, held by institutions shows a dash until more report, and a link opens Q2 2026, complete

The September quarter, still filing. SentiSense app, Apple holders, captured October 25, 2026.

What the Holders view shows

The Institutional view on a stock page opens with four figures: holders (13F filers, with sister entities of one manager counted once, so Vanguard's several filing entities count as one), value held, held by institutions (reported shares as a percent of shares outstanding, using the latest share count the company filed) and top 10 hold (the ten largest holders' combined stake, shown on PRO). While less than half of the quarter shown has reported, the two percentages show a dash instead of a partial figure. The ownership percent can pass 100% because lent shares are reported by both the lender and the buyer.

Below them, notable holders lists well-known managers found anywhere in the full roster, not only in the top rows. It always uses the last complete quarter and names it on screen. Free shows the names; PRO adds each manager's position and its change over the quarter.

The holder table shows each holder's shares, value and quarterly change, plus a % Out column: that holder's share of the company. Free previews the top five holders. PRO shows the full roster and sorts it by any number column, so sorting by share change puts the quarter's largest buyers and sellers at the top. A change is shown only when that holder's prior-quarter filing is complete; otherwise the row says the comparison is unavailable.

Flows by quarter

A second view, Flows by quarter, puts up to twelve quarters side by side, newest first. Each row carries the number of holders, the share of the company they held, net shares bought or sold, net dollar flow at the quarter's average closing price, and how many positions were new, added to, trimmed or exited. A quarter that is still filing is marked as such.

Free shows the newest four quarters. PRO shows up to twelve and opens any quarter into its biggest buyers and sellers by share change. A quarter's name opens that quarter's holder list, so the table is also the way to move through time.

In the API

GET /api/v1/institutional/holders/{ticker} returns the same data. Without reportDate it serves the latest settled quarter in which the ticker has holders, not the quarter still filing that the app opens on, and echoes the quarter it used in reportDate. The response carries:

selection: how the quarter was chosen and whether it is settled or filing;
earlyFilersStatus and earlyFilers: the newer, still-filing quarter, with its holderCount and coveragePct (the app's share reported);
notableHolders, checked against the full roster;
sharesOutstanding, sharesOutstandingAsOf and institutionalOwnershipPct, plus a per-holder pctOfClassOutstanding;
comparisonStatus, for the response and for each holder; only AVAILABLE supports a quarter-over-quarter claim.

A free key returns a preview of the top five holders, with notable holders as names only; PRO returns the full roster with position and change fields. On PRO, passing limit returns a sorted page: sortBy=sharesChange with sortDir=desc lists the quarter's largest buyers, asc its largest sellers, and the page carries a notableChanges summary of holders that changed a position of 10,000 shares or more by at least 10%, with the five largest by dollar impact.

Pass reportDate for a specific quarter. GET /api/v1/institutional/quarters lists the available quarters and marks the one still filing as pending; that quarter becomes the API default the day after its SEC deadline. Field definitions are in the institutional flows docs.

The quarter-by-quarter view is its own endpoint. GET /api/v1/institutional/holders/{ticker}/history returns one row per quarter, newest first, for up to 20 quarters: the holder count, the share of the class institutions held, net shares bought or sold, net dollar flow and the count of new, increased, decreased and exited positions. A quarter that is still filing is labeled filing, so a partial quarter is never read as a whole one. A free key returns the newest four quarters. Field definitions are in the ownership history docs.

In the MCP connector

With the SentiSense connector added in Claude or ChatGPT, ask "who owns CRM" and the get_smart_money tool answers from the settled quarter, with the still-filing line and the notable holders in the roster. With format: json it returns the quarter, the holders, earlyFilers and notableHolders as fields a dashboard can read.

Where the numbers come from

Holdings come from SEC 13F-HR filings. Shares outstanding come from the latest cover-page count each company filed as of the quarter's settle date. A 13F is a snapshot of long positions at quarter end: it does not show when a manager traded, what it paid, short positions, or what it holds today. For the filing rules and deadlines, see what a 13F filing is.

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Data from SEC filings. Not investment advice.