Institutional investor

An institutional investor is a large organization that invests money on behalf of its clients or members—think pension funds, mutual funds, insurance companies, or university endowments. Unlike you buying 100 shares of a stock, these entities manage billions of dollars and buy massive stakes in companies. You'll encounter them constantly in SEC filings (official documents companies submit to regulators), where their big purchases and sales get reported. They matter because their moves can move markets—when a major pension fund dumps a stock, it sends ripples. For example, if CalPERS (a huge California pension fund) sells a million shares of TechCorp, that's news worth paying attention to.