This Survey, devoted to
analyzing
investment properties, keeps a large number of well-known listed companies under a thirteen-week cyclical survey each year.
Lundberg - The-Rich-and-the-Super-Rich-by-Ferdinand-Lundberg
, Rockefeller Center, Inc.
; director of Filatures et Tissages Africains; chairman of Estate Good Hope and of the Dorado Beach Hotel Corporation.
The SEC reports, September, 1961, show that he held 183,274 shares, more than 15 per cent, of the Marquardt Corporation ($8-3/4-$19-1/2 ) after selling 1,300 shares.
In Itek Corporation he sold 425 shares as reported by SEC in July, 1965, retaining 152,080 shares ($41).
His investment orientation is said to be toward growth enterprises.
Winthrop Rockefeller, a self-described investment manager, has established himself in Arkansas as an extensive operator in land and large-scale agricultural projects. He is a director of the Union National Bank of Little Rock. The most martial of the Rockefellers, he entered the army as a private in 1941 and emerged as a lieutenant colonel; he was with the 77th infantry in the invasion of Guam, Leyte and Okinawa and was decorated with the Bronze Star with oak leaf cluster and the Purple Heart.
If one were to base one's conclusions about the financial status of the Rockefellers from the SEC reports alone, there would be little to tell. A stranger to the scene, with only the SEC reports to go on, would never conclude the Rockefellers amounted to much financially. But we do know from court records that the extensive Standard Oil holdings of John D. I passed to his children, chiefly to John D. II, whose will in turn indicated that he had established trust funds for his six children and many grandchildren. We are thrown back in this case to the TNEC study for basic data.
The family could have divested itself of Standard Oil holdings but, if it had, the fact would have become known through SEC reports or other channels The Rockefellers do not actively associate themselves with the management of the Standard Oil enterprises, apparently allowing them to be run according to standard big-business practices; but the general opinion of investment specialists is that directly and indirectly they hold a decisive veto power over any policy or action of these companies. No conceivable financial syndicate in the world would undertake to challenge the unobtrusive Rockefeller dominance of Standard Oil Company (New Jersey), the largest oil company and the largest industrial enterprise by assets of any kind in the world.
My conclusion is that the relative financial position of the Rockefeller family is now the same as or better than it was at the time of the TNEC study. It may be surpassed a bit by the far more numerous Du Ponts; but no single Du Pont appears to be as wealthy as any one of the six oldest Rockefellers. The financial strength of the Du Ponts is spread unevenly among some 250 persons. So, while the collective net worth of the Du Ponts may or may not be somewhat greater than that of the Rockefellers, only the Mellons can compare with the latter individually.
The general strength of the Rockefellers and Mellons, net worth to one side, also appears notably great because it is more widely diversified in high priority enterprises-- especially banking. The Du Ponts seem more deeply entrenched in frontier technology, although neither the Standard Oil companies nor Gulf Oil should be overlooked as huge
science-oriented enterprises. They are more than producers and distributors of petroleum.
But the very vagueness of our recent specific data on the Rockefellers, their failure to trade in and out of their stocks, should in itself be taken as a sign that they preside over enterprises too vast to permit distraction into minor operations.
The Rosenwald Family
About 25 per cent of the stock of Sears, Roebuck and Company, largest merchandising enterprise in the world, is owned by the employees' pension fund. The TNEC report showed the Rosenwald family holding 12. 5 per cent Of the stock, worth now about $500 million. While the Rosenwalds do not engage. in many stock transactions in this company, there have been a few, enough to signal that they are still present. Whether their percentage holding is now greater or less than it was there is no way of determining through the SEC reports. In view of the vast expansion of the company since the war, one would surmise that they had simultaneously added, net, to their holdings The most recent Rosenwald holding was shown in the SEC report for October, 1964, when Edgar B. (Rosenwald) Stern, Jr. , was shown as owning 25,017 shares directly, 1,762 shares as community property and 312,844 shares through a trust fund. He is a director of the company and an occasional trader in the stock. The July 11, 1949, SEC report showed that Julius Rosenwald II held 7,248 shares after selling 750 shares. As neither of these are the major living Rosenwalds, who are Lessing and William, we may safely conclude that the family still maintains a large financial presence in the company, with the management of which they have always been actively associated.
Miscellaneous Large Holdings
Similar large holdings by family and investment groups in major companies can be set forth. In order to economize on space there will now be summarily reported, on the basis of the SEC reports, some concentrated large stockholdings in the largest companies of 1964, mostly of old-line families. The dates are of the SEC monthly reports. Prices are the 1965 range.
Some such holdings are, incompletely, as follows:
Armour ($35-1/4--$53-1/8)
Frederick Henry Prince Trust of 1932
Modestus R. Bauer
William Wood Prince
Shares Date
356,000 Sept. , 1965
136,400 March, 1965
63,625 Jan. , 1965
175,090 Jan. , 1965
180,264
4,7 20
64,075
252,256
323
42,472
108,486
84,87 8
240,5 77
113,432 Sept. , 1965
193,872
Reynolds Metals
David P. Reynolds
($33-5/8--$48)
Trusts
Minor daughters
Davreyn Corp.
R. S. Reynolds, Jr.
Trusts
As custodian
Rireyn Corp.
William G. Reynolds
Trusts
Wilreyn Corp.
Singer
Stephen C. Clark, Jr,
Trusts
($56--$83-1/)4
F. Ambrose Clark
Trusts
259,264 Jan. , 1964
650,110
51,325 Sept. , 1965
35,759
21,896
61,500 Aug. , 1965
123,900
51,563 May, 1965
123,900
143,694 Feb. , 1960
19,500
3,451,913 Dec. , 1963
632,900
9,400
865,752 Nov. , 1963
1,000 Aug. , 1965
876,000
371,800
4,500 Aug. , 1964
1,500
4,682,504
2,711,801 May, 1963
1,797,895 May, 1961
25,000
12,980 July, 1965
4,200
60,000
25,450 Aug. , 1964
2,000
53,592 July, 1960
8,000
1,313,520 July, 1965
36,885
169,7176
1,216
American Sugar
Frederick E. Ossorio
Ossorio family
As custodian
Inland Steel
L. B. Block
Trusts
Joseph L. Block
($41-3/8--$48)
Trusts
Phillip D. Block, Jr
Trusts
Alleghany ($8-3/4--$13-3/4)
Allan P. Kirby (Woolworth)
Holding company A
Holding company B
Scott Paper ($33-$40-1/8)
Thomas B. McCabe
Minnesota Mining & Mfg.
Ralph H. Dwan
Trust
Trust
John D. Ordway
Foundation
Ordway Trust
William L. McKnight
Archibald G. Bush
($540-$71-5/8)
General Guarantee Insurance
Owens-Illinois ($49-5/8--67-1/4)
Robert H. Levis II
R. G. Levis Estate
Trust
J. Preston Levis
Trust
William E. Levis
Partnership
Polaroid
Edwin H. Land
James P. Warburg
($44-1/4--$130)
Holding company
Bydale Company
Fontenoy Corporation
(Both of these holdings are
reduced from originals)
($19-3/8--$31-5/8)
International Business Machines ($404-$549)
Arthur K. Watson 56,111 May, 1965
Trusts 34,315
Thomas J. Watson, Jr. 37,072
Trusts 34,315
Sherman M. Fairchild 164,795
Magellan Company 3,750
Dow Chemical
Herbert H. Dow
Corning Glass Works
Amory Houghton
Trusts
Amory Houghton, Jr
Trusts
As Trustee
Arthur A. Houghton, Jr.
Trusts
International Paper
Ogden Phipps
Trust
Holding company
W. R. Grace
J. Peter Grace
Trusts
Michael Phipps
Holding company No. 1
Holding company No. 2
John H. Phipps
272,832
51,350
918,651
400
22,500
1,130
265,465
990,401
1,513
14,599
909,226
240,678
50,715
8,641
370,897
9,146
10,028
752
372,590
117,069
165,963
1,422
15,658
7,050
170,732
13,500
2,125
298,278
76,356
162,800
110,257
142,646
64,000
35,360
2,714,897
55,326
129,838
111,652
31,103
($24-3/4--$33-7/8)
236,921
Trust
Holding companies
Weyerhaeuser
C. D. Weyerhaeuser
Trust
Corporation
John H. Hauberg
($41-1/2--$49-3/8)
As guardian
Trusts
Corporations
Nonprofit corporation
Herbert M. Kieckbefer
John M. Musser
Trusts
As trustee
F. K. Weyerhaeuser
Trusts for children
Green Valley Co.
Winn-Dixie Stores ($35-1/8--$43-7/8)
Four members of Davis family
Anderson, Clayton ($26-1/8--$33-1/2)
S. M. McAshan, Jr.
S. C. McAshan Trust
William L. Clayton
Leland Anderson
Hunt Foods & Industries
Donald E. Simon
Trusts for children
Frederick R. Weisman
Lerand
Robert Ellis Simon
Georgia-Pacific
3,422
11,025
80,293
260,649
($65-1/8--$ 83-3/4)
($49-1/8--$58-3/4)
March, 1965
Feb. , 1963
Oct. , 1961
March, 1965
March, 1965
Dec. , 1963
July, 1962
Feb. , 1965
Dec. , 1964
April, 1964
Jan. , 1964
Feb. , 1965
Jan. , 1965
Oct. , 1964
Dec. , 1962
Jan. , 1965
Nov. , 1964
Aug. , 1964
($281/4--$36-1/8)
($47-1/4--$61-3/8)
($51-5/8--$65-5/8)
Julian N. Cheatham
J. N. Cheatham Corp.
Owen R. Cheatham
R. B. Pamplin
R. B. Pamplin Corp.
Trusts
Robert E. Floweree, Jr.
H. J. Heinz ($33-5/8--$49-3/8)
H. J. Heinz II
C. Z. Heinz Trust
Distillers Corporation--Seagrams
S. Bronfman Trusts
61,086
21,173
217,189
22,329
22,943
31,300
37,644
405,839
577,728
Dec. , 1964
March, 1965
Sept. , 1963
Aug. , 1963
Jan. , 1965
Dec. , 1964
Nov. , 1964
April, 1947
June, 1964
April, 1964
Jan. , 1964
April, 1964
April, 1964
March, 1964
Feb. , 1964
Rohm & Haas
F. Otto Haas
Trustee
John C. Haas
($151-1/2--$181-1/2)
13,936
23,707
20,446
23,708
638,702
644,767
As trustee
Trusts
Charitable trusts
(Also see Feb. , 1963, for
larger holdings)
William Wrigley, Jr.
Philip K. Wrigley
Trusts
Corporation
Firestone Tire & Rubber
Roger S. Firestone
H. S. Firestone, Jr.
Raymond C. Firestone
Roger S. Firestone
($92-1/4--$104-3/4)
364,256
Upjohn
Dorothy U. Dalton
Rudolph A. Light
Trusts
Preston S. Parish
Trusts
E. Gifford Upjohn
Trusts
Donald S. Gilmore
Trusts
Consolidation Coal
M. A. Hanna Co.
National Steel
M. A. Hanna Co.
Columbia Broadcasting
William S. Paley
Holding company
As trustee
Olin Mathieson Chemical
Spencer T. Olin
In voting trust
($30-3/8--$39-1/8)
3,382,026
60,845
15,000
($40-7/8--$50-1/4)
SPLIT 6 FOR 1
SPLIT 6 FOR 1
SPLIT 6 FOR 1
267,452
27,346
35,914
28,390
465,299
247,587
72,331
16,083
242,152
44,617
50,649
188,750
211,065
2,010,000
3,402, 780
1,391,968
297,430
9,178
28,984
380,930
($52-1/4--$77)
($46-3/8--$66-3/8)
($51--$65-3/4)
($33-5/8--$47-7/8)
($41--$58-1/4)
Ralston Purina
Donald Danforth, Jr.
As custodian
Crown-Zellerbach
J. D. Zellerbach
$34-7/8--$41-1/2)
Partnership
Foundation
Trusts
Brown Engineering
John F. Lynch
Fairchild Camera ($27-1/4-$165-1/4)
Sherman M. Fairchild
Partnership
Holding Company
Smith Kline & French Laboratories
Miles Valentine
0
747,066
16,850
16,528
19,232
249,566
457,396
35,000
22,000
Trust A
Trust B
Allied Chemical
William A. Burden
Trust
Company
($70-1/4--$86-3/4)
856
42,570
2,116,000
94,485
80,661
136,135
($47--$60-1/4)
40,304
61,346
104,462
Jan. , 1964
July, 1963
June, 1963
Jan. , 1963
Feb. , 1963
Dec. , 1962
Sept. , 1962
Sept. , 1961
Sept. , 1961
Aug. , 1961
Texas Eastern Transmission ($44-1/2--$53-3/4)
George R. Brown (Brown & Root)
($46-1/8--$58-1/4)
Merck
Adolph G. Rosengarten, Jr. SPLIT 3 FOR 1 33,110
Estate A
Estate B
Sehenley Industries
Lewis S. Rosenstiel
SPLIT 3 FOR 1
SPLIT 3 FOR 1
($22-1/4-$39-7/8)
60,600
43,000
636,958
66,183
1,500
217,859
510,558
Wholly owned company
Trust A
Trust B
American Metal Climax
Harold Hochschild
($40-3/4--$54-1/4)
($48-1/2--$75)
Concentrated Control in All Companies
Having shown the persistence into the present of these very large interests, it will now be demonstrated that virtually all companies--large, medium and small--are ultimately controlled and/or mainly owned by a few large interests manifested mainly as families.
One could show this by direct citation of the SEC reports, which would necessitate literally thousands of references. But these SEC reports are utilized by investment analysis services in reporting to their pecuniary-minded readers. These services summarize the SEC reports of large holdings. We may therefore refer to a highly reliable secondary source which picks lip and summarizes these facts, a source available in major public and university libraries. It is The Value Line Investment Survey, published by Arnold Bernard and Company of New York.
This Survey, devoted to analyzing investment properties, keeps a large number of well-known listed companies under a thirteen-week cyclical survey each year. The facts about to be listed were taken
from the summaries of this Survey, which were compiled from the SEC monthly Official Summary.
The contention to which we are addressing ourselves, once again, is this: American companies are widely owned by at least twenty million stockholders, a number that is increasing. While this is true, because anyone owning a single share of stock worth $5 is a stockholder, we have already seen that most people do not own any stock at all. The thesis that stock ownership is widespread and the further thesis that most stock owners hold a great deal of stock is false. Only a very few people own stock in significant quantities. Just how few is shown by the cited University of Michigan studies.
In certain companies, it is true, stock ownership is widespread compared with most companies, and much of the stock is held in small quantities. But the fact that a person holds a small quantity of stock in a company like AT&T--100 to 500 shares--does not prove he is a small stockholder. He may and often does hold stock in many companies.
Although a company like AT&T does indeed have many small stockholders--persons owning 50 to 100 shares and perhaps little or no other stock--the carefully nurtured propaganda even about AT&T is grossly misleading. This propaganda asserts that no individual owns as much as 1 per cent of the stock of AT&T.
Now, if any person owned only 1/2 of 1 per cent of the stock in AT&T he would be enormously wealthy, worth about $160 million, but AT&T has large stockholders whose exact percentage of holdings today would be disclosed only by a government investigation addressing itself to this question. The United Kingdom government, for example, was until recently a very large stockholder in AT&T as well as in other American and European companies. European governments are large stockholders in many American and European companies. Additionally, private investment holding companies and family trust funds are large holders. The stockholdings interest even in AT&T, then, is not so completely generalized as one might conclude upon being informed that no individual owns as much as 1 per cent of its stock.
But if only ten individuals held 1/2 of 1 per cent each, that would be 5 per cent of the stock, worth about $1. 6 billion, and a long step toward working control.
In presenting the following list of dominant interests in a wide variety of companies it should be noticed that the big stockholders are usually characterized as a family or group of officers and directors. This is done to save space; anyone can look up officers and directors in standard reference manuals if he is interested in identities. Scores of companies reported in The Value Line Investment Survey are not listed. In general, those are not listed in which no large interest is reported.
But just because large interests do not trade in a stock and because directors own only a few shares there is no reason to believe that large interests are not in the immediate background. In the General Electric Company, world's largest manufacturer of electrical appliances, directors own only 1 per cent of the stock and the SEC reports do not show any single stockholder or family group holding more than 10 per cent of the stock. Nevertheless, stockholdings in General Electric are quite concentrated.
The TNEC study, for example, as of November 24, 1939, showed that 86. 2 per cent of the stockholders, owning 19. 4 per cent of the stock, held fewer than 100 shares each. But 13. 8 per cent of the stockholders, owning 80. 6 per cent of the stock, held in blocks of more than 100 shares each. 3
Actually, out of 209,732 stockholders at the time, 522, or . 2 per cent of all stockholders, held 33 per cent of outstanding General Electric stock, while 1. 5 per cent of all stockholders held 53 per cent of the stock. 4 At that time in E. I. du Pont de Nemours, known by current SEC data to be still closely held by the du Pont family, 0. 4
per cent of stockholders held 65. 7 per cent of all stock. 5 There is not much difference, then, between a company closely owned and one supposed to be widely owned.
At that same prewar period the TNEC study showed that in AT&T, 0. 02 per cent of stockholders held 7. 8 per cent of the stock, 0. 1 per cent of the stockholders held 15. 3 per cent of stock and 0. 4 per cent of the stockholders held 21. 2 per cent of the stock (these figures being cumulative). 6
In a large company only 5 per cent of the stock, particularly if it is voted by the management, is generally considered to be a long step toward working control, and 15 per cent is said to be well-grounded working control. Only a powerful syndicate contending for the support of medium and small stockholders can hope to challenge the control of a 15-per-cent block in a big company. Naturally, the closer the controlling block approaches 51 per cent of the stock the nearer it is to absolute control. But working control is ordinarily sufficient for running the company and determining its policies.
AT&T in 1965 had 2,674,000 stockholders. If we assume there is now the same distribution of large stockholders its before World War II, then 534 stockholders now vote 7. 8 per cent of the stock, 2,674 vote 15. 3 per cent and 10,679 vote 21. 2 per cent of the stock. Thus is refuted the contention that in this most widely owned of American companies there is no power-center of concentrated ownership. And if these percentages do not now actually prevail, some closely similar set of percentages surely holds and it may well be that relatively fewer stock-holders own larger percentages of the stock now than in 1939.
The management of AT&T, far from representing a generalized wide interest in its stock, in fact acts at the behest of a small group of large stockholders and trust fund managers. The directors themselves hold less than 0. 1 per cent of the stock.
By consulting this same TNEC source anyone can ascertain that in every large American company, no matter bow many individual stockholders it may have, extremely large blocks are held by a handful of people. Indeed, the same statistical presentation of TNEC showed some large companies to be 100 per cent owned by a single shareholding: Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, Ford Motor Company and Hearst Consolidated Publications. In the 1930's it was quite common for big public utility operating companies to be 100 per cent owned by a holding company and for entire issues of preferred stock to be owned by a single stockholder.
The TNEC study showed, in fact, that almost always only a fraction of 1 per cent of the stockholders (usually only a small fraction) in all the large companies own huge controlling blocks of stock. 7 Numerous small stockholders collectively usually own only a minor percentage of outstanding stock.
Let me here cite the TNEC percentages for a few companies commonly regarded as widely held. American Can, . 2 per cent of stockholders owned 29. 9 per cent, . 8 per cent owned 45. 2 per cent; Coca-Cola, . 7 per cent owned 66. 1 per cent; Corn Products, . 4 per cent owned 37. 3 per cent; Consolidated Edison, . 2 per cent owned 30. 8 per cent; Eastman Kodak, . 1 per cent owned 16 per cent; General Motors, . 6 per cent owned 65. 5 per cent; Sears, Roebuck, . 2 per cent owned 44. 9 per cent; Texas Corporation, . 3 per cent owned 31. 8 per cent, etc. The pattern rarely varies. And when it does it gives no support to those who argue that stock is widely held. Thus, in Anderson, Clayton & Co. , then and now the largest cotton merchandisers in the world, 10 per cent of stockholders held 73. 6 per cent of common stock; and 26. 7 per cent held 95. 8 per cent. But the 10 per cent consisted of three shareholdings and the 26. 7 per cent of eight shareholdings. , for this was a company with very few stockholders.
The fact that all companies are not cited in what follows, therefore, does not indicate that there are companies without very small groups of large stockholders, All it indicates is that there has been no recent citation of such evidence for some companies in the SEC reports.
This can flatly be. said as a fact: There is no American producing company that is controlled through a representative directorship by or primarily on behalf of a set of stockholders each of which owns or has a beneficial interest in. only an infinitesimal proportion of outstanding shares. "People's capitalism" has this in common with "people's democracy": The rank and file doesn't have much to say, which is what common sense alone would lead one to suppose.
The method of disproving this sweeping statement (what logicians call a universal statement) is extremely easy. All anyone has to do is to point to the exceptional company and the statement is falsified. The company usually pointed to as the exceptional case, AT&T, is clearly not such a case; nor is General Electric. There is no company on the TNEC list, analyzed with a view to disclosing such data, that meets the requirement.
Bearing all this in mind, let us now look at the broad evidence of large interests that has been revealed in recent SEC reports. The dates heading each section of companies are the dates of the separate weekly issues of The Value Line Investment Survey.
The additional companies with recently revealed large controlling owning individuals or groups of stockholders are as follows (instances repeating our findings from the SEC reports have been retained):
Allied Supermarkets
Broadway-Hale Stores
City Stores
Emporium Capwell
Gimbel Brothers
about
W. T. Grant
S. Klein Dept. Stores
E. J. Korvette
Sears, Roebuck
Bond Stores
October 1, 1965
Officers control about 50 percent of shares
Hale Bros. Associates owns 20 per cent of
stock
Bankers Securities Corp. owns about 75 per
cent; G. A. Amsterdam, Chairman, and
associates own majority control of Bankers
Securities
Broadway-Hale Stores, Inc. , owns 23. 9 per
Cent
Directors and associates interested in
15 per cent of shares
W. T. Grant owns 14 per cent common
stock; Grant Foundation, 12 per cent
McCrory Corp. owns 18. 6 per cent of out-
standing stock
F. Ferkauf and family own 28 per cent of
Stock
Employee pension fund owns 24 per cent
(Rosenwald family owns at least 12. 5 per
cent by TNEC study and scattered SEC
reports. )
Directors interested in 14. 1 per cent
Diana Stores
Lane Brvant
S. S. Kresge
McCrory
Neisner Brothers
J. J. Newberry
Peoples Drug Stores
Colonial Stores
Food Fair Stores
Food Giant Markets
Food Mart
Grand Union
Great Atlantic & Pacific
Tea Co.
National Tea
Penn Fruit
Von's Grocery
Winn-Dixie Stores
Beaunit Corp.
National Sugar Refining
North American Sugar
American Crystal Sugar
Sucrest Corp.
Directors vote 26. 2 per cent of outstand-
ing stock
Directors vote 28 per cent
Directors vote about 3 per cent of stock;
Kresge Foundation, 21. 6 per cent
Rapid-American Corporation owns 50. 5
per cent of common
51 per cent of stock controlled by Neisner
Family
Newberry family controls about 40 per
cent common
Trusts of the Gibbs family control about
13 per cent of stock
National Food Products Corp. holds 33 per
cent common; directors own about 17 per
cent Colonial common, 21 per cent Na-
tional Food
Friedland family controls about 35 per
cent common
Management controls about 35 per cent
common and 51 per cent preferred stock
Management controls about 10 per cent of
Shares
L. A. Green, director, and relatives own
9. 0 per cent common and 10. 9 per cent
convertible debentures
Hartford Foundation and members of fam-
ily own 72 per cent of stock
Company controlled by W. Garfield Weston
Directors own about 35-40 per cent common
Von Der Ahe family owns 43. 6 per cent of
stock; Hayden family owns 19. 5 per cent
Davis family of Florida owns 28 per cent
common
El Paso Natural Gas owns 32 per cent
H. Havernever, Jr. , and H. W. Havemeyer
and their associates own 28 per cent
Kaiser family owns 25 per cent
North American Sugar holds 9 per cent
Taussig family controls about 42 per cent
October 8, 1965
Columbia Broadcasting
Desilu
Disney Productions
MCA, Inc.
Hilton Hotels
Howard Johnson
Sheraton Corporation
W. S. Paley and directors control about 15
per cent
Lucille Ball, actress, owns 50 per cent
common and Class B combined
Directors own or control about 41 per cent
Directors own 45 per cent common
Conrad Hilton and directors own 27 per
cent of stock
About 38 per cent is owned by Johnson
Family
Henderson and Moore families own 22 percent
October 15, 1965
Only banks and insurance companies, involving secondary holdings of assets, are listed in the issue of this date, and usually the dominant interests are not shown because there are few changes in key holdings from year to year.
The known dominant interest of the Mellons in the Mellon National Bank or of the Rockefellers in the Chase National Bank is therefore not alluded to. On the basis of either the SEC or TNEC reports there is no direct evidence of such interests, which are known on other grounds such as presence among directors. If a Mellon, Rockefeller, Du Pont or similar personage is on the board of directors of a bank, one has no reason to suppose that he is contributing his widely informed insight to a profit-making institution in which he has no beneficial stake.
In general, among banks and insurance companies there is an even smaller distribution of small holdings than in some of the well-known industrial companies because they are more apt to attract a rarer sophisticated type of investor with a better understanding of these relatively complicated media. Values in the shares of financial companies are leveraged by more subtle factors than are those of most industrial companies and often the true values are concealed. In general, in the mid-1960's, the values of most banks and insurance company stocks were understated in market price while the values of most industrial companies were grossly overstated. These discrepancies correct themselves in time. But a sophisticated investor, buying a stock at 50 which he knows to be worth 100 (and such situations can be pointed to), does not mind if the price does not immediately advance or even if it declines still further. He knows that eventually it must work out at its true value. Meanwhile, he can presumably afford to wait.
But in this issue of The Value Line Investment Survey it is pointed out that the Transamerica Corporation, an investment company, holds an 11 per cent interest in Crocker-Citizens National Bank of California. Transamerica was established by the Giannini interests, which built the Bank of America of California into the biggest commercial bank in the world.
Aerojet-General
voting
Beech Aircraft
Douglas Aircraft
October 22, 1965
General Tire owns 84 per cent of
Stock
Mrs. O. A. Beech controls 17 per cent;
directors 4 per cent
J. S. McDonnell controls 5 per cent
McDonnell Aircraft
Fairchild Hiller
directors
General Dynamics
896. 7
Grumman Aircraft Engineering
Marquardt Corporation
Piper Aircraft
Chrysler
American Metal Products
Champion Spark Plug
Dana
Eltra stock
Fram cent
Gulf & Western Industries
common
A. 0. Smith
Timken Roller Bearing
General Battery and Ceramic
per cent
Globe-Union
Gould-National
Divco-Wayne
Deere
Armstrong Rubber
directors
Firestone Tire & Rubber
cent
J. S. McDonnell, Jr. , owns 14 per cent
common; other officers 5 per cent
Sherman M. Fairchild and other
own . /control 7 per cent
Henry Crown controls almost all of
million preferred stock
Directors control 8. 5 per cent
Laurance Rockefeller owns 16 per cent
W. T. Piper controls about 18 per cent
Consolidation Coal (Hanna-Mellon) owns
7 per cent, directors 1 per cent
Directors own about 6. 5 per cent
Management owns about 66 per cent
C. A. Dana owns 9. 5 per cent common;
Dana Foundation 16. 4 per cent
American Mfg. owns 33. 4 per cent of
S. B. Wilson and family control 11 per
Directors control about 20 per cent
Smith family owns about 53 per cent of
Stock
Directors have 22 per cent
Officers/directors control about 26
Common
Sears, Roebuck owns 12 per cent
Directors own about 24 per cent
Directors own 28 per cent
Directors own 14. 5 per cent
Sears, Roebuck owns 9 per cent;
about 11 per cent
Firestone family owns about 21 per
of stock
General Tire & Rubber
Braniff Airways
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
National Airlines
Northeast Airlines
Trans World Airlines
Hughes
New York Central RR
per
Pittsburgh & Lake Erie RR
Soo Line RR
Pittsburgh Forgings
American Commercial Lines
American Export Isbrandtsen
common
Lykes Bros. Steamship
per
interests
McLean Industries
Moore and McCormack
Cooper-Jarrett
held
McLean Trucking
held
Merchants Fast Motor Lines
cent
Roadway Express
per cent
Ryder System
Spector Freight
Amerada Petroleum
British American Oil
Directors control 17 per cent
October 29, 1965
Greatamerica Corp. owns 58 per cent
Dutch government owns 51 per cent
Directors own about 13 per cent
Storer Broadcasting owns 87 per cent
77 per cent of stock held in trust for
Hughes Tool Co. , owned by Howard
Allan P. Kirby controls; he owns 4. 5
cent directly and controls 15 per cent
through Alleghany Corp.
81 per cent owned by New York Central
Canadian Pacific owns 56 per cent
Directors own/control 12 per cent
16 per cent closely held
Isbrandtsen Co. owns 26. 3 per cent
Directors own 15 per cent; another 50
cent closely held by Lykes family
Directors own 60 per cent
Directors interested in 34 per cent
About 35 per cent of stock closely
About 20 per cent of stock closely
G. and C.
Winthrop Rockefeller, a self-described investment manager, has established himself in Arkansas as an extensive operator in land and large-scale agricultural projects. He is a director of the Union National Bank of Little Rock. The most martial of the Rockefellers, he entered the army as a private in 1941 and emerged as a lieutenant colonel; he was with the 77th infantry in the invasion of Guam, Leyte and Okinawa and was decorated with the Bronze Star with oak leaf cluster and the Purple Heart.
If one were to base one's conclusions about the financial status of the Rockefellers from the SEC reports alone, there would be little to tell. A stranger to the scene, with only the SEC reports to go on, would never conclude the Rockefellers amounted to much financially. But we do know from court records that the extensive Standard Oil holdings of John D. I passed to his children, chiefly to John D. II, whose will in turn indicated that he had established trust funds for his six children and many grandchildren. We are thrown back in this case to the TNEC study for basic data.
The family could have divested itself of Standard Oil holdings but, if it had, the fact would have become known through SEC reports or other channels The Rockefellers do not actively associate themselves with the management of the Standard Oil enterprises, apparently allowing them to be run according to standard big-business practices; but the general opinion of investment specialists is that directly and indirectly they hold a decisive veto power over any policy or action of these companies. No conceivable financial syndicate in the world would undertake to challenge the unobtrusive Rockefeller dominance of Standard Oil Company (New Jersey), the largest oil company and the largest industrial enterprise by assets of any kind in the world.
My conclusion is that the relative financial position of the Rockefeller family is now the same as or better than it was at the time of the TNEC study. It may be surpassed a bit by the far more numerous Du Ponts; but no single Du Pont appears to be as wealthy as any one of the six oldest Rockefellers. The financial strength of the Du Ponts is spread unevenly among some 250 persons. So, while the collective net worth of the Du Ponts may or may not be somewhat greater than that of the Rockefellers, only the Mellons can compare with the latter individually.
The general strength of the Rockefellers and Mellons, net worth to one side, also appears notably great because it is more widely diversified in high priority enterprises-- especially banking. The Du Ponts seem more deeply entrenched in frontier technology, although neither the Standard Oil companies nor Gulf Oil should be overlooked as huge
science-oriented enterprises. They are more than producers and distributors of petroleum.
But the very vagueness of our recent specific data on the Rockefellers, their failure to trade in and out of their stocks, should in itself be taken as a sign that they preside over enterprises too vast to permit distraction into minor operations.
The Rosenwald Family
About 25 per cent of the stock of Sears, Roebuck and Company, largest merchandising enterprise in the world, is owned by the employees' pension fund. The TNEC report showed the Rosenwald family holding 12. 5 per cent Of the stock, worth now about $500 million. While the Rosenwalds do not engage. in many stock transactions in this company, there have been a few, enough to signal that they are still present. Whether their percentage holding is now greater or less than it was there is no way of determining through the SEC reports. In view of the vast expansion of the company since the war, one would surmise that they had simultaneously added, net, to their holdings The most recent Rosenwald holding was shown in the SEC report for October, 1964, when Edgar B. (Rosenwald) Stern, Jr. , was shown as owning 25,017 shares directly, 1,762 shares as community property and 312,844 shares through a trust fund. He is a director of the company and an occasional trader in the stock. The July 11, 1949, SEC report showed that Julius Rosenwald II held 7,248 shares after selling 750 shares. As neither of these are the major living Rosenwalds, who are Lessing and William, we may safely conclude that the family still maintains a large financial presence in the company, with the management of which they have always been actively associated.
Miscellaneous Large Holdings
Similar large holdings by family and investment groups in major companies can be set forth. In order to economize on space there will now be summarily reported, on the basis of the SEC reports, some concentrated large stockholdings in the largest companies of 1964, mostly of old-line families. The dates are of the SEC monthly reports. Prices are the 1965 range.
Some such holdings are, incompletely, as follows:
Armour ($35-1/4--$53-1/8)
Frederick Henry Prince Trust of 1932
Modestus R. Bauer
William Wood Prince
Shares Date
356,000 Sept. , 1965
136,400 March, 1965
63,625 Jan. , 1965
175,090 Jan. , 1965
180,264
4,7 20
64,075
252,256
323
42,472
108,486
84,87 8
240,5 77
113,432 Sept. , 1965
193,872
Reynolds Metals
David P. Reynolds
($33-5/8--$48)
Trusts
Minor daughters
Davreyn Corp.
R. S. Reynolds, Jr.
Trusts
As custodian
Rireyn Corp.
William G. Reynolds
Trusts
Wilreyn Corp.
Singer
Stephen C. Clark, Jr,
Trusts
($56--$83-1/)4
F. Ambrose Clark
Trusts
259,264 Jan. , 1964
650,110
51,325 Sept. , 1965
35,759
21,896
61,500 Aug. , 1965
123,900
51,563 May, 1965
123,900
143,694 Feb. , 1960
19,500
3,451,913 Dec. , 1963
632,900
9,400
865,752 Nov. , 1963
1,000 Aug. , 1965
876,000
371,800
4,500 Aug. , 1964
1,500
4,682,504
2,711,801 May, 1963
1,797,895 May, 1961
25,000
12,980 July, 1965
4,200
60,000
25,450 Aug. , 1964
2,000
53,592 July, 1960
8,000
1,313,520 July, 1965
36,885
169,7176
1,216
American Sugar
Frederick E. Ossorio
Ossorio family
As custodian
Inland Steel
L. B. Block
Trusts
Joseph L. Block
($41-3/8--$48)
Trusts
Phillip D. Block, Jr
Trusts
Alleghany ($8-3/4--$13-3/4)
Allan P. Kirby (Woolworth)
Holding company A
Holding company B
Scott Paper ($33-$40-1/8)
Thomas B. McCabe
Minnesota Mining & Mfg.
Ralph H. Dwan
Trust
Trust
John D. Ordway
Foundation
Ordway Trust
William L. McKnight
Archibald G. Bush
($540-$71-5/8)
General Guarantee Insurance
Owens-Illinois ($49-5/8--67-1/4)
Robert H. Levis II
R. G. Levis Estate
Trust
J. Preston Levis
Trust
William E. Levis
Partnership
Polaroid
Edwin H. Land
James P. Warburg
($44-1/4--$130)
Holding company
Bydale Company
Fontenoy Corporation
(Both of these holdings are
reduced from originals)
($19-3/8--$31-5/8)
International Business Machines ($404-$549)
Arthur K. Watson 56,111 May, 1965
Trusts 34,315
Thomas J. Watson, Jr. 37,072
Trusts 34,315
Sherman M. Fairchild 164,795
Magellan Company 3,750
Dow Chemical
Herbert H. Dow
Corning Glass Works
Amory Houghton
Trusts
Amory Houghton, Jr
Trusts
As Trustee
Arthur A. Houghton, Jr.
Trusts
International Paper
Ogden Phipps
Trust
Holding company
W. R. Grace
J. Peter Grace
Trusts
Michael Phipps
Holding company No. 1
Holding company No. 2
John H. Phipps
272,832
51,350
918,651
400
22,500
1,130
265,465
990,401
1,513
14,599
909,226
240,678
50,715
8,641
370,897
9,146
10,028
752
372,590
117,069
165,963
1,422
15,658
7,050
170,732
13,500
2,125
298,278
76,356
162,800
110,257
142,646
64,000
35,360
2,714,897
55,326
129,838
111,652
31,103
($24-3/4--$33-7/8)
236,921
Trust
Holding companies
Weyerhaeuser
C. D. Weyerhaeuser
Trust
Corporation
John H. Hauberg
($41-1/2--$49-3/8)
As guardian
Trusts
Corporations
Nonprofit corporation
Herbert M. Kieckbefer
John M. Musser
Trusts
As trustee
F. K. Weyerhaeuser
Trusts for children
Green Valley Co.
Winn-Dixie Stores ($35-1/8--$43-7/8)
Four members of Davis family
Anderson, Clayton ($26-1/8--$33-1/2)
S. M. McAshan, Jr.
S. C. McAshan Trust
William L. Clayton
Leland Anderson
Hunt Foods & Industries
Donald E. Simon
Trusts for children
Frederick R. Weisman
Lerand
Robert Ellis Simon
Georgia-Pacific
3,422
11,025
80,293
260,649
($65-1/8--$ 83-3/4)
($49-1/8--$58-3/4)
March, 1965
Feb. , 1963
Oct. , 1961
March, 1965
March, 1965
Dec. , 1963
July, 1962
Feb. , 1965
Dec. , 1964
April, 1964
Jan. , 1964
Feb. , 1965
Jan. , 1965
Oct. , 1964
Dec. , 1962
Jan. , 1965
Nov. , 1964
Aug. , 1964
($281/4--$36-1/8)
($47-1/4--$61-3/8)
($51-5/8--$65-5/8)
Julian N. Cheatham
J. N. Cheatham Corp.
Owen R. Cheatham
R. B. Pamplin
R. B. Pamplin Corp.
Trusts
Robert E. Floweree, Jr.
H. J. Heinz ($33-5/8--$49-3/8)
H. J. Heinz II
C. Z. Heinz Trust
Distillers Corporation--Seagrams
S. Bronfman Trusts
61,086
21,173
217,189
22,329
22,943
31,300
37,644
405,839
577,728
Dec. , 1964
March, 1965
Sept. , 1963
Aug. , 1963
Jan. , 1965
Dec. , 1964
Nov. , 1964
April, 1947
June, 1964
April, 1964
Jan. , 1964
April, 1964
April, 1964
March, 1964
Feb. , 1964
Rohm & Haas
F. Otto Haas
Trustee
John C. Haas
($151-1/2--$181-1/2)
13,936
23,707
20,446
23,708
638,702
644,767
As trustee
Trusts
Charitable trusts
(Also see Feb. , 1963, for
larger holdings)
William Wrigley, Jr.
Philip K. Wrigley
Trusts
Corporation
Firestone Tire & Rubber
Roger S. Firestone
H. S. Firestone, Jr.
Raymond C. Firestone
Roger S. Firestone
($92-1/4--$104-3/4)
364,256
Upjohn
Dorothy U. Dalton
Rudolph A. Light
Trusts
Preston S. Parish
Trusts
E. Gifford Upjohn
Trusts
Donald S. Gilmore
Trusts
Consolidation Coal
M. A. Hanna Co.
National Steel
M. A. Hanna Co.
Columbia Broadcasting
William S. Paley
Holding company
As trustee
Olin Mathieson Chemical
Spencer T. Olin
In voting trust
($30-3/8--$39-1/8)
3,382,026
60,845
15,000
($40-7/8--$50-1/4)
SPLIT 6 FOR 1
SPLIT 6 FOR 1
SPLIT 6 FOR 1
267,452
27,346
35,914
28,390
465,299
247,587
72,331
16,083
242,152
44,617
50,649
188,750
211,065
2,010,000
3,402, 780
1,391,968
297,430
9,178
28,984
380,930
($52-1/4--$77)
($46-3/8--$66-3/8)
($51--$65-3/4)
($33-5/8--$47-7/8)
($41--$58-1/4)
Ralston Purina
Donald Danforth, Jr.
As custodian
Crown-Zellerbach
J. D. Zellerbach
$34-7/8--$41-1/2)
Partnership
Foundation
Trusts
Brown Engineering
John F. Lynch
Fairchild Camera ($27-1/4-$165-1/4)
Sherman M. Fairchild
Partnership
Holding Company
Smith Kline & French Laboratories
Miles Valentine
0
747,066
16,850
16,528
19,232
249,566
457,396
35,000
22,000
Trust A
Trust B
Allied Chemical
William A. Burden
Trust
Company
($70-1/4--$86-3/4)
856
42,570
2,116,000
94,485
80,661
136,135
($47--$60-1/4)
40,304
61,346
104,462
Jan. , 1964
July, 1963
June, 1963
Jan. , 1963
Feb. , 1963
Dec. , 1962
Sept. , 1962
Sept. , 1961
Sept. , 1961
Aug. , 1961
Texas Eastern Transmission ($44-1/2--$53-3/4)
George R. Brown (Brown & Root)
($46-1/8--$58-1/4)
Merck
Adolph G. Rosengarten, Jr. SPLIT 3 FOR 1 33,110
Estate A
Estate B
Sehenley Industries
Lewis S. Rosenstiel
SPLIT 3 FOR 1
SPLIT 3 FOR 1
($22-1/4-$39-7/8)
60,600
43,000
636,958
66,183
1,500
217,859
510,558
Wholly owned company
Trust A
Trust B
American Metal Climax
Harold Hochschild
($40-3/4--$54-1/4)
($48-1/2--$75)
Concentrated Control in All Companies
Having shown the persistence into the present of these very large interests, it will now be demonstrated that virtually all companies--large, medium and small--are ultimately controlled and/or mainly owned by a few large interests manifested mainly as families.
One could show this by direct citation of the SEC reports, which would necessitate literally thousands of references. But these SEC reports are utilized by investment analysis services in reporting to their pecuniary-minded readers. These services summarize the SEC reports of large holdings. We may therefore refer to a highly reliable secondary source which picks lip and summarizes these facts, a source available in major public and university libraries. It is The Value Line Investment Survey, published by Arnold Bernard and Company of New York.
This Survey, devoted to analyzing investment properties, keeps a large number of well-known listed companies under a thirteen-week cyclical survey each year. The facts about to be listed were taken
from the summaries of this Survey, which were compiled from the SEC monthly Official Summary.
The contention to which we are addressing ourselves, once again, is this: American companies are widely owned by at least twenty million stockholders, a number that is increasing. While this is true, because anyone owning a single share of stock worth $5 is a stockholder, we have already seen that most people do not own any stock at all. The thesis that stock ownership is widespread and the further thesis that most stock owners hold a great deal of stock is false. Only a very few people own stock in significant quantities. Just how few is shown by the cited University of Michigan studies.
In certain companies, it is true, stock ownership is widespread compared with most companies, and much of the stock is held in small quantities. But the fact that a person holds a small quantity of stock in a company like AT&T--100 to 500 shares--does not prove he is a small stockholder. He may and often does hold stock in many companies.
Although a company like AT&T does indeed have many small stockholders--persons owning 50 to 100 shares and perhaps little or no other stock--the carefully nurtured propaganda even about AT&T is grossly misleading. This propaganda asserts that no individual owns as much as 1 per cent of the stock of AT&T.
Now, if any person owned only 1/2 of 1 per cent of the stock in AT&T he would be enormously wealthy, worth about $160 million, but AT&T has large stockholders whose exact percentage of holdings today would be disclosed only by a government investigation addressing itself to this question. The United Kingdom government, for example, was until recently a very large stockholder in AT&T as well as in other American and European companies. European governments are large stockholders in many American and European companies. Additionally, private investment holding companies and family trust funds are large holders. The stockholdings interest even in AT&T, then, is not so completely generalized as one might conclude upon being informed that no individual owns as much as 1 per cent of its stock.
But if only ten individuals held 1/2 of 1 per cent each, that would be 5 per cent of the stock, worth about $1. 6 billion, and a long step toward working control.
In presenting the following list of dominant interests in a wide variety of companies it should be noticed that the big stockholders are usually characterized as a family or group of officers and directors. This is done to save space; anyone can look up officers and directors in standard reference manuals if he is interested in identities. Scores of companies reported in The Value Line Investment Survey are not listed. In general, those are not listed in which no large interest is reported.
But just because large interests do not trade in a stock and because directors own only a few shares there is no reason to believe that large interests are not in the immediate background. In the General Electric Company, world's largest manufacturer of electrical appliances, directors own only 1 per cent of the stock and the SEC reports do not show any single stockholder or family group holding more than 10 per cent of the stock. Nevertheless, stockholdings in General Electric are quite concentrated.
The TNEC study, for example, as of November 24, 1939, showed that 86. 2 per cent of the stockholders, owning 19. 4 per cent of the stock, held fewer than 100 shares each. But 13. 8 per cent of the stockholders, owning 80. 6 per cent of the stock, held in blocks of more than 100 shares each. 3
Actually, out of 209,732 stockholders at the time, 522, or . 2 per cent of all stockholders, held 33 per cent of outstanding General Electric stock, while 1. 5 per cent of all stockholders held 53 per cent of the stock. 4 At that time in E. I. du Pont de Nemours, known by current SEC data to be still closely held by the du Pont family, 0. 4
per cent of stockholders held 65. 7 per cent of all stock. 5 There is not much difference, then, between a company closely owned and one supposed to be widely owned.
At that same prewar period the TNEC study showed that in AT&T, 0. 02 per cent of stockholders held 7. 8 per cent of the stock, 0. 1 per cent of the stockholders held 15. 3 per cent of stock and 0. 4 per cent of the stockholders held 21. 2 per cent of the stock (these figures being cumulative). 6
In a large company only 5 per cent of the stock, particularly if it is voted by the management, is generally considered to be a long step toward working control, and 15 per cent is said to be well-grounded working control. Only a powerful syndicate contending for the support of medium and small stockholders can hope to challenge the control of a 15-per-cent block in a big company. Naturally, the closer the controlling block approaches 51 per cent of the stock the nearer it is to absolute control. But working control is ordinarily sufficient for running the company and determining its policies.
AT&T in 1965 had 2,674,000 stockholders. If we assume there is now the same distribution of large stockholders its before World War II, then 534 stockholders now vote 7. 8 per cent of the stock, 2,674 vote 15. 3 per cent and 10,679 vote 21. 2 per cent of the stock. Thus is refuted the contention that in this most widely owned of American companies there is no power-center of concentrated ownership. And if these percentages do not now actually prevail, some closely similar set of percentages surely holds and it may well be that relatively fewer stock-holders own larger percentages of the stock now than in 1939.
The management of AT&T, far from representing a generalized wide interest in its stock, in fact acts at the behest of a small group of large stockholders and trust fund managers. The directors themselves hold less than 0. 1 per cent of the stock.
By consulting this same TNEC source anyone can ascertain that in every large American company, no matter bow many individual stockholders it may have, extremely large blocks are held by a handful of people. Indeed, the same statistical presentation of TNEC showed some large companies to be 100 per cent owned by a single shareholding: Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, Ford Motor Company and Hearst Consolidated Publications. In the 1930's it was quite common for big public utility operating companies to be 100 per cent owned by a holding company and for entire issues of preferred stock to be owned by a single stockholder.
The TNEC study showed, in fact, that almost always only a fraction of 1 per cent of the stockholders (usually only a small fraction) in all the large companies own huge controlling blocks of stock. 7 Numerous small stockholders collectively usually own only a minor percentage of outstanding stock.
Let me here cite the TNEC percentages for a few companies commonly regarded as widely held. American Can, . 2 per cent of stockholders owned 29. 9 per cent, . 8 per cent owned 45. 2 per cent; Coca-Cola, . 7 per cent owned 66. 1 per cent; Corn Products, . 4 per cent owned 37. 3 per cent; Consolidated Edison, . 2 per cent owned 30. 8 per cent; Eastman Kodak, . 1 per cent owned 16 per cent; General Motors, . 6 per cent owned 65. 5 per cent; Sears, Roebuck, . 2 per cent owned 44. 9 per cent; Texas Corporation, . 3 per cent owned 31. 8 per cent, etc. The pattern rarely varies. And when it does it gives no support to those who argue that stock is widely held. Thus, in Anderson, Clayton & Co. , then and now the largest cotton merchandisers in the world, 10 per cent of stockholders held 73. 6 per cent of common stock; and 26. 7 per cent held 95. 8 per cent. But the 10 per cent consisted of three shareholdings and the 26. 7 per cent of eight shareholdings. , for this was a company with very few stockholders.
The fact that all companies are not cited in what follows, therefore, does not indicate that there are companies without very small groups of large stockholders, All it indicates is that there has been no recent citation of such evidence for some companies in the SEC reports.
This can flatly be. said as a fact: There is no American producing company that is controlled through a representative directorship by or primarily on behalf of a set of stockholders each of which owns or has a beneficial interest in. only an infinitesimal proportion of outstanding shares. "People's capitalism" has this in common with "people's democracy": The rank and file doesn't have much to say, which is what common sense alone would lead one to suppose.
The method of disproving this sweeping statement (what logicians call a universal statement) is extremely easy. All anyone has to do is to point to the exceptional company and the statement is falsified. The company usually pointed to as the exceptional case, AT&T, is clearly not such a case; nor is General Electric. There is no company on the TNEC list, analyzed with a view to disclosing such data, that meets the requirement.
Bearing all this in mind, let us now look at the broad evidence of large interests that has been revealed in recent SEC reports. The dates heading each section of companies are the dates of the separate weekly issues of The Value Line Investment Survey.
The additional companies with recently revealed large controlling owning individuals or groups of stockholders are as follows (instances repeating our findings from the SEC reports have been retained):
Allied Supermarkets
Broadway-Hale Stores
City Stores
Emporium Capwell
Gimbel Brothers
about
W. T. Grant
S. Klein Dept. Stores
E. J. Korvette
Sears, Roebuck
Bond Stores
October 1, 1965
Officers control about 50 percent of shares
Hale Bros. Associates owns 20 per cent of
stock
Bankers Securities Corp. owns about 75 per
cent; G. A. Amsterdam, Chairman, and
associates own majority control of Bankers
Securities
Broadway-Hale Stores, Inc. , owns 23. 9 per
Cent
Directors and associates interested in
15 per cent of shares
W. T. Grant owns 14 per cent common
stock; Grant Foundation, 12 per cent
McCrory Corp. owns 18. 6 per cent of out-
standing stock
F. Ferkauf and family own 28 per cent of
Stock
Employee pension fund owns 24 per cent
(Rosenwald family owns at least 12. 5 per
cent by TNEC study and scattered SEC
reports. )
Directors interested in 14. 1 per cent
Diana Stores
Lane Brvant
S. S. Kresge
McCrory
Neisner Brothers
J. J. Newberry
Peoples Drug Stores
Colonial Stores
Food Fair Stores
Food Giant Markets
Food Mart
Grand Union
Great Atlantic & Pacific
Tea Co.
National Tea
Penn Fruit
Von's Grocery
Winn-Dixie Stores
Beaunit Corp.
National Sugar Refining
North American Sugar
American Crystal Sugar
Sucrest Corp.
Directors vote 26. 2 per cent of outstand-
ing stock
Directors vote 28 per cent
Directors vote about 3 per cent of stock;
Kresge Foundation, 21. 6 per cent
Rapid-American Corporation owns 50. 5
per cent of common
51 per cent of stock controlled by Neisner
Family
Newberry family controls about 40 per
cent common
Trusts of the Gibbs family control about
13 per cent of stock
National Food Products Corp. holds 33 per
cent common; directors own about 17 per
cent Colonial common, 21 per cent Na-
tional Food
Friedland family controls about 35 per
cent common
Management controls about 35 per cent
common and 51 per cent preferred stock
Management controls about 10 per cent of
Shares
L. A. Green, director, and relatives own
9. 0 per cent common and 10. 9 per cent
convertible debentures
Hartford Foundation and members of fam-
ily own 72 per cent of stock
Company controlled by W. Garfield Weston
Directors own about 35-40 per cent common
Von Der Ahe family owns 43. 6 per cent of
stock; Hayden family owns 19. 5 per cent
Davis family of Florida owns 28 per cent
common
El Paso Natural Gas owns 32 per cent
H. Havernever, Jr. , and H. W. Havemeyer
and their associates own 28 per cent
Kaiser family owns 25 per cent
North American Sugar holds 9 per cent
Taussig family controls about 42 per cent
October 8, 1965
Columbia Broadcasting
Desilu
Disney Productions
MCA, Inc.
Hilton Hotels
Howard Johnson
Sheraton Corporation
W. S. Paley and directors control about 15
per cent
Lucille Ball, actress, owns 50 per cent
common and Class B combined
Directors own or control about 41 per cent
Directors own 45 per cent common
Conrad Hilton and directors own 27 per
cent of stock
About 38 per cent is owned by Johnson
Family
Henderson and Moore families own 22 percent
October 15, 1965
Only banks and insurance companies, involving secondary holdings of assets, are listed in the issue of this date, and usually the dominant interests are not shown because there are few changes in key holdings from year to year.
The known dominant interest of the Mellons in the Mellon National Bank or of the Rockefellers in the Chase National Bank is therefore not alluded to. On the basis of either the SEC or TNEC reports there is no direct evidence of such interests, which are known on other grounds such as presence among directors. If a Mellon, Rockefeller, Du Pont or similar personage is on the board of directors of a bank, one has no reason to suppose that he is contributing his widely informed insight to a profit-making institution in which he has no beneficial stake.
In general, among banks and insurance companies there is an even smaller distribution of small holdings than in some of the well-known industrial companies because they are more apt to attract a rarer sophisticated type of investor with a better understanding of these relatively complicated media. Values in the shares of financial companies are leveraged by more subtle factors than are those of most industrial companies and often the true values are concealed. In general, in the mid-1960's, the values of most banks and insurance company stocks were understated in market price while the values of most industrial companies were grossly overstated. These discrepancies correct themselves in time. But a sophisticated investor, buying a stock at 50 which he knows to be worth 100 (and such situations can be pointed to), does not mind if the price does not immediately advance or even if it declines still further. He knows that eventually it must work out at its true value. Meanwhile, he can presumably afford to wait.
But in this issue of The Value Line Investment Survey it is pointed out that the Transamerica Corporation, an investment company, holds an 11 per cent interest in Crocker-Citizens National Bank of California. Transamerica was established by the Giannini interests, which built the Bank of America of California into the biggest commercial bank in the world.
Aerojet-General
voting
Beech Aircraft
Douglas Aircraft
October 22, 1965
General Tire owns 84 per cent of
Stock
Mrs. O. A. Beech controls 17 per cent;
directors 4 per cent
J. S. McDonnell controls 5 per cent
McDonnell Aircraft
Fairchild Hiller
directors
General Dynamics
896. 7
Grumman Aircraft Engineering
Marquardt Corporation
Piper Aircraft
Chrysler
American Metal Products
Champion Spark Plug
Dana
Eltra stock
Fram cent
Gulf & Western Industries
common
A. 0. Smith
Timken Roller Bearing
General Battery and Ceramic
per cent
Globe-Union
Gould-National
Divco-Wayne
Deere
Armstrong Rubber
directors
Firestone Tire & Rubber
cent
J. S. McDonnell, Jr. , owns 14 per cent
common; other officers 5 per cent
Sherman M. Fairchild and other
own . /control 7 per cent
Henry Crown controls almost all of
million preferred stock
Directors control 8. 5 per cent
Laurance Rockefeller owns 16 per cent
W. T. Piper controls about 18 per cent
Consolidation Coal (Hanna-Mellon) owns
7 per cent, directors 1 per cent
Directors own about 6. 5 per cent
Management owns about 66 per cent
C. A. Dana owns 9. 5 per cent common;
Dana Foundation 16. 4 per cent
American Mfg. owns 33. 4 per cent of
S. B. Wilson and family control 11 per
Directors control about 20 per cent
Smith family owns about 53 per cent of
Stock
Directors have 22 per cent
Officers/directors control about 26
Common
Sears, Roebuck owns 12 per cent
Directors own about 24 per cent
Directors own 28 per cent
Directors own 14. 5 per cent
Sears, Roebuck owns 9 per cent;
about 11 per cent
Firestone family owns about 21 per
of stock
General Tire & Rubber
Braniff Airways
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
National Airlines
Northeast Airlines
Trans World Airlines
Hughes
New York Central RR
per
Pittsburgh & Lake Erie RR
Soo Line RR
Pittsburgh Forgings
American Commercial Lines
American Export Isbrandtsen
common
Lykes Bros. Steamship
per
interests
McLean Industries
Moore and McCormack
Cooper-Jarrett
held
McLean Trucking
held
Merchants Fast Motor Lines
cent
Roadway Express
per cent
Ryder System
Spector Freight
Amerada Petroleum
British American Oil
Directors control 17 per cent
October 29, 1965
Greatamerica Corp. owns 58 per cent
Dutch government owns 51 per cent
Directors own about 13 per cent
Storer Broadcasting owns 87 per cent
77 per cent of stock held in trust for
Hughes Tool Co. , owned by Howard
Allan P. Kirby controls; he owns 4. 5
cent directly and controls 15 per cent
through Alleghany Corp.
81 per cent owned by New York Central
Canadian Pacific owns 56 per cent
Directors own/control 12 per cent
16 per cent closely held
Isbrandtsen Co. owns 26. 3 per cent
Directors own 15 per cent; another 50
cent closely held by Lykes family
Directors own 60 per cent
Directors interested in 34 per cent
About 35 per cent of stock closely
About 20 per cent of stock closely
G. and C.
