Last Updated on 05/20/2021 by GS Staff
Best Buy Ownership Explained
Best Buy is a publicly-traded company. It is owned by the various institutions and individuals who own shares of its stock. Best Buy trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol BBY. It has over 250 million shares outstanding. A large portion of these shares are owned by the below top five institutional holders:
Top 5 Institutional Holders
The institutions reflected below are the top five institutional holders of Best Buy shares. There are approximately 883 institutional Holders that hold over 198 million shares of Best Buy at the time of this article.
| Holder | Shares | Reported Date |
|---|---|---|
| Vanguard Group | 28,804,153 | March 30, 2021 |
| Blackrock | 20,989,045 | March 30, 2021 |
| FMR, LLC | 13,812,587 | March 30, 2021 |
| JP Morgan Chase | 11,390,281 | March 30, 2021 |
| State Street Corporation | 10,358,005 | March 30, 2021 |
| *Source: Nasdaq.com |
Top Individual Stock Holder
The founder of Best Buy, Richard Schulze, is the largest individual shareholder of the company. He owns approximately 11 percent of the company as of the time of this article.
When Did Best Buy Go Public?
The company went public as Best Buy in 1985 in order to raise money to open stores. It was first listed on the Nasdaq and later moved to the NYSE in 1987. The initial public offering (IPO) raised $8 million. This is quite small in comparison to modern-day IPOs. For example, DoorDash (DASH) recently raised $3.37 billion and Airbnb (ABNB) had a recent IPO deal size of $3.51 billion.
Who Started Best Buy?
Richard Schulze and a partner launched Best Buy (then called Sound of Music) in 1966. It started as a single store in Saint Paul, Minnesota that sold stereo systems. Schulze’s partner was bought out in 1969 leaving Schulze to head the business on his own. By the end of 1978, the company had opened nine Sound of Music stores in Minnesota.
A pivotal moment came for the company in 1981 when a tornado damaged one of the stores in Roseville, Minnesota. The company responded by launching a “Tornado Sale” under a tent in the parking lot in order to sell damaged and overstocked merchandise. The sale was a major success. According to the StarTribune, the company brought in more money during the four days of the sale compared to a typical month of sales for the chain. This event caused Schulze to revaluate the game plan for the business.
The company changed its name from Sound of Music to Best Buy in 1983. That year, the first Best Buy superstore was opened in Burnsville, Minnesota. According to Companies History, the model of the superstore was “high-volume, low price”, which was partially derived from the famous Tornado Sale in 1981.
Schulze was the CEO of Best Buy from 1983 to 2002. He held the role of chairman until 2012 when he stepped down because of a scandal involving his failure to report a relationship between the CEO and a 29-year-old female employee that went against company policy. However, let’s not feel too bad for Schultze. The company allowed him to remain an honorary chairman emeritus. Additionally, Forbes estimates his current net worth to be $4.9 billion.
How To Purchase Best Buy Stock?
Most online brokers will have shares of Best Buy stock available for purchase for free or for a small trading fee. Furthermore, if you visit investors.bestbuy.com, you will find information on the company’s Direct Stock Purchase Program and the Best Buy Dividend Reinvestment Plan.
