There are few companies that can claim the same level of success as Capital One (COF 3.55%) over the past two decades. Since going public in 1994, its shares have generated a total return of 1,680% compared to the S&P 500's 567%.

Who are the lucky investors to have benefited from this? When talking about the top five, which are revealed in the slideshow below, the answer is: large institutional money managers. These companies aggregate smaller investors' capital into mutual and exchange-traded funds that then invest in stocks and bonds. Suffice it to say that this is how these companies are able to own larger stakes in Capital One and other stocks than the average person.

Without further ado, check out the slideshow below to see the five companies who own a combined 29% of Capital One's outstanding common stock -- a table with raw data follows it.

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Capital One's Biggest Investors

Number of Shares Owned

Value of Stake

Ownership Interest in Capital One

Dodge & Cox

46.4 million

$3.7 billion

8.49%

Capital Research & Management Co.

31.0 million

$2.5 billion

5.68%

Vanguard

29.8 million

$2.4 billion

5.45%

Fidelity

27.6 million

$2.2 billion

5.06%

State Street

22.8 million

$1.8 billion

4.17%

Data source: Morningstar, Yahoo! Finance, author's calculations.