How much of each company the index funds own

14.1%

of the median company · held by these ETFs

544

companies · a fifth or more in ETF hands, of 2,598

55%

of all the ETF money · in Vanguard funds

1. The index money is thickest in the middle. Companies worth $2B to $10B are 17.4% in ETF hands at the median, and 36% of them a fifth or more: most sit in the mid-cap and small-cap indexes that whole lines of funds track. The largest, worth $200 billion and up, are 13.4%; the smallest, under $2 billion, 9.9%, many of them in no big index.
2. Real Estate leads the sectors at 19.2%, with dedicated sector and income funds on top of the broad ones; Communication Services is lowest at 10.1%.
3. Two fund families hold most of it. Vanguard’s funds account for 55.2% of all the ETF money in this study and iShares for 21.1%. Vanguard’s ETFs alone own 7.1%of the median company; with iShares and State Street’s SPDR funds the three own 11.8%.
4. At the top, 123 companies are a quarter or more in ETF hands, led by OFG Bancorp (OFG) at 33.3%, held by 29 funds. At the other end, the large US companies the funds barely own are recent listings and companies run by a parent or a founder who holds most of the stock.

• Real Estate12019.2%
• Utilities7318.9%
• Consumer Defensive11016.0%
• Consumer Cyclical27115.6%
• Industrials39315.2%
• Technology38014.9%
• Energy12214.7%
• Financial Services44613.1%
• Basic Materials15212.3%
• Healthcare43711.5%
• Communication Services9410.1%

The same ranking above $2 billion, every night, is on most held by ETFs; every company’s own funds are on its ownership page.

Most are recent listings not yet in the big indexes, companies controlled by a parent or founder whose stake the indexes leave out, or share classes the indexes do not use.