Inside 13F Filings: Tracking Institutional Money Flow
Quarterly 13F-HR filings reveal what the world's largest money managers hold. Here's how FilingSight surfaces them per company.
If you've ever wondered whether Buffett, BlackRock, or a hedge fund holds a stock you follow, the answer lives in a filing called the 13F-HR.
What is a 13F?
U.S. institutional investment managers managing more than $100 million must file a Form 13F-HR within 45 days of each quarter-end, disclosing their long equity holdings. It's a quarterly window into the portfolios of mutual funds, hedge funds, pension funds and endowments.
The ownership signal
A 13F doesn't tell you a precise "who owns X%" — but it tells you how many managers recently reported holding a name, which is a strong proxy for institutional breadth and conviction. At FilingSight, the Filings & Ownership section of every report runs an EDGAR full-text search for the company and counts recent 13F filings that reference it.
Activists vs. passive holders
We also distinguish 13D filings (beneficial owners taking a more than 5% stake, often with activist intent) from 13G filings (passive holders above 5%). A sudden 13D can be a powerful catalyst — it's why we surface them separately, alongside insider Form 4 transactions.
Putting it together
Institutional breadth, insider direction (buy vs. sell), and activist activity form our ownership layer. Combined with fundamentals and valuation, they give a fuller picture than any single metric — and it's all sourced from filings the SEC makes freely available.