Branch Banking & Trust Company, better known as BB&T, was founded in 1872 and operated under the BB&T name from 1903 through 2019 when it merged with fellow regional financial institution SunTrust Banks. The merger created Truist Financial (TFC -2.11%), which is one of the largest banks in the United States.
In this article, we'll discuss the structure of the merger, the largest shareholders, Truist's board of directors, and more.
Overview
Who is the owner of BB&T?
BB&T merged with SunTrust to create Truist Financial in 2019. The deal was announced in February 2019 and was called a "merger of equals," although BB&T was the official acquirer -- meaning that SunTrust investors received shares of BB&T stock after the deal was finalized.
Based on the initial terms of the deal, BB&T investors owned 57% of the combined bank after the deal was completed, while SunTrust investors owned the other 43%.
There were a few reasons why the deal materialized the way it did. For one thing, there were a lot of opportunities for cost synergies. Both were massive regional banks that operated in many of the same parts of the United States, and there was little reason to believe there would be any regulatory barriers to the deal. It was the largest merger between two U.S. banks since the 2007-09 financial crisis.
The deal was finalized in December 2019. The combined business has about 10 million households as customers. At the time of the deal, William Rogers, who was the CEO of SunTrust, became the leader of the combined business, which was renamed Truist. However, the full integration and re-branding took a couple of years.
Largest shareholders
Who are the largest shareholders?
Truist's largest shareholders mainly consist of the company's executives and directors on the individual side and of large investment management firms on the institutional investor side.
Individual shareholders
There are generally three types of individual shareholders who have to publicly disclose their investments in a publicly traded company like Truist. These are institutional investors, investors who own more than 5% of the company, and the company's own directors and executive officers. As is common with large financial institutions, no individual shareholders own more than 5% of Truist Financial. With that in mind, here are the top five individual shareholders as reported in the company's latest regulatory filings:
- William H. Rogers, Jr. owns 1,168,706 shares of Truist, a stake valued at about $43 million as of April 2024. He is currently the CEO and board chairman for Truist and led SunTrust prior to the merger.
- Hugh Cummings owns 378,164 shares of Truist. He is the bank's vice chair and chief operating officer.
- Clarke Starnes owns 231,447 shares of Truist and is the bank's vice chair and chief risk officer.
- Michael Maguire owns 80,968 shares of Truist and serves as president and chief financial officer of the bank.
- Charles Patton owns 75,438 shares of Truist and is a member of the bank's board of directors.
Institutional investors
As you might expect, the largest shareholders of Truist are institutions -- specifically those who offer index funds to investors. Vanguard and BlackRock (BLK -0.68%) are the two largest owners of the bank stock. Here's a list of the top five:
- Vanguard owns 117,952,471 shares of Truist, an 8.8% stake in the financial institution.
- BlackRock (BLK -0.68%) owns 97,462,687 shares of Truist, a stake of about 7.3%.
- State Street (STT -1.35%) owns 62,359,468 shares of Truist, a stake of about 4.7%. Note that the first three institutions on this list own Truist through their index fund products.
- Mutual fund management company Dodge & Cox owns 52,173,840 shares of Truist, which is approximately 4% of the bank.
- Bank of America (BAC -1.07%) owns 25,918,489 shares of Truist, a roughly 1.9% stake in the bank.
Board of Trustees
Board of directors
Who is on the Board of Directors for Truist Financial?
Truist Financial's board of directors has 13 members, each of whom is elected to a one-year term at the company's annual meeting each year. Here's the current roster:
- Jennifer Banner, executive director of the University of Tennessee Haslam College of Business Forum for Emerging Enterprises and Private Business. She has been on the board (or its predecessor) since 2003 and owns 27,969 shares of Truist.
- K. David Boyer has been CEO of private cybersecurity and business intelligence firm GlobalWatch Technologies for 20 years and has been on Truist's board since 2009. He owns 18,721 shares of the bank.
- Agnes Bundy Scanlan, president of regulatory advisory firm The Cambridge Group, has served on Truist's board since 2017. She owns 6,208 shares.
- Dallas Clement is the CFO of private media and communications company Cox Enterprises and has been a director of Truist or its predecessor companies since 2015. He owns 2,923 shares.
- Patrick Graney is the manager of several real estate partnerships and has been on the board since 2018. He owns 22,269 shares of Truist.
- Linnie Haynesworth has been a board member since 2019 and is a retired Northrop Grumman (NOC 2.84%) executive. She owns 2,923 shares.
- Donna Morea has been CEO of consulting firm Adesso Group for more than a decade and has been a board member since 2012. She owns 39,415 shares of Truist.
- Charles Patton has managed a large real estate holding company and an investment firm for many years and has served on the board since 2013. He owns 75,438 shares.
- William Rogers is the bank's CEO and chairman. He was the CEO of SunTrust for about eight years. Rogers is the largest individual shareholder, owning more than 1.1 million shares.
- Thomas Skains is the former CEO of Piedmont Natural Gas, a position that he held for 13 years until Piedmont was acquired by Duke Energy (DUK 0.07%). He owns 31,891 shares.
- Laurence Stein is a first-time director nominee in 2024 and recently retired as executive vice president and COO of asset and wealth management at Goldman Sachs (GS -0.71%).
- Bruce Tanner has been a board member since 2015 and is a retired executive vice president and CFO of Lockheed Martin (LMT 1.23%). He owns 11,722 shares of company stock.
- Steven Voorhees is a retired CEO of paper and packaging company WestRock (WRK -1.41%) and has been a board member since 2018. He owns 60,873 shares of Truist.
Related investing topics
How to invest
How to invest in Truist Financial
Truist Financial is a publicly traded company, so you can invest in it by purchasing shares of its stock through a brokerage account.
If you don't already have a brokerage account, you'll need to open one to invest in stocks. First, check out some of the top online brokers and decide which company is the best fit for your investment goals and preferences.
Next, fill out the account application. You'll have to provide your Social Security number and other identifying information to open a brokerage account, and you'll also need to link a bank account or provide another source of funding. Once your account is open and you've added money to it, the procedure of investing in a bank stock like Truist, or any other company for that matter, is rather simple:
- Decide how much money you want to invest in Truist Financial.
- Get a stock quote (through your broker or a platform like CNBC or Yahoo Finance) to see the current share price.
- Divide the amount you'd like to invest by the current stock price. If your broker allows fractional share investing, this is the number of shares you'll buy. If it doesn't, you'll need to round down to the nearest whole number.
- Whether you want to place a limit order or a market order. The Motley Fool recommends using a market order since it guarantees you buy shares immediately at market price.
- Use your broker's order form (this is typically on the main screen after you log in) to enter a "buy" order for the number of shares you want to purchase.
FAQ
Who owns BB&T: FAQ
Who bought out BB&T?
BB&T wasn't bought out -- rather, it combined with fellow regional bank SunTrust in a "merger of equals." The merger took place in 2019 and created the sixth-largest commercial bank in the United States, with about 10 million customers. Both BB&T and SunTrust were primarily focused on the Southeast region, and the companies stopped using their old brand names a couple of years after the merger was finalized.
Who are the largest shareholders of Truist Bank?
There are only three types of investors who need to publicly disclose their holdings:
- Executives and directors of a publicly traded company.
- Hedge funds and financial institutions that are required to file a Form 13-F with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
- Individuals who own more than 5% of a company.
Truist doesn't have any individual shareholders who own more than 5% of its stock, but it does have some major stockholders in the first two categories. Its CEO is the largest shareholder among its executives and directors, and since it's a component of several stock indices, top institutional shareholders include major index fund providers like Vanguard.
Is BB&T a public company?
Yes, BB&T is a public company, but since 2019 it has been a part of Truist Financial, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol TFC. Truist Financial was formed when BB&T and SunTrust combined in a "merger of equals."
Can I invest in BB&T?
Yes, BB&T is no longer a stand-alone financial institution. It merged with SunTrust in 2019 and subsequently was renamed Truist Financial, which is a publicly traded bank. By opening a brokerage account, depositing money, and buying shares of Truist, you can invest in the bank that was formerly known as BB&T.
