Exploring ON Semiconductor Corporation (ON) Investor Profile: Who’s Buying and Why?

You're looking at ON Semiconductor Corporation (ON) and trying to figure out who's actually buying this stock right now, right? It's a fair question, especially with the market sending mixed signals: institutional investors still hold a massive 97.70% of the shares, but we've seen a recent dip in that ownership alongside rising short interest, which defintely underscores some near-term uncertainty. The core investment thesis hasn't changed, though-it's all about the pivot to high-margin, high-growth power and sensing solutions, particularly in the electric vehicle (EV) and industrial sectors with Silicon Carbide (SiC) technology.

But here's the quick math: the company just reported Q3 2025 revenue of $1,550.9 million and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.63, beating estimates, yet the Q4 revenue forecast of $1.48 billion to $1.58 billion reflects the cyclical headwinds hitting the industrial segment. So, are the buyers the long-term strategists betting on the SiC ramp and the new $6 billion share repurchase program, or is the recent selling a reaction to the short-term margin pressure? That's the tension we need to unpack to understand who's driving the $18.33 billion market capitalization today.

Who Invests in ON Semiconductor Corporation (ON) and Why?

You're looking for a clear picture of who owns ON Semiconductor Corporation (ON) and what drives their investment decisions. The direct takeaway is that ON is overwhelmingly an institutional stock, with nearly all shares held by large funds betting on its long-term transition to high-growth, high-margin power and sensing solutions.

The company's primary appeal is its strategic pivot into Silicon Carbide (SiC) technology for Electric Vehicles (EVs) and industrial power, not dividends. Institutional investors own the vast majority of the company, which means their collective sentiment dictates the stock's major movements.

The Dominant Players: Institutional and Retail Breakdown

The ownership structure of ON Semiconductor Corporation is a classic example of a stock dominated by institutional money. As of late 2025, institutional investors and hedge funds own a staggering 97.70% of the company's stock. This high concentration means you need to pay close attention to the movements of these large funds, as they have the power to move the share price significantly.

Retail investors-the public and individual investors-hold a much smaller stake, around 15.23% of the shares outstanding. Insider ownership, which is the stake held by executives and directors, is minimal at approximately 0.51%. That's a low figure, but it's not defintely a red flag when the company is focused on a capital-intensive growth strategy.

The top three institutional holders, as of the September 30, 2025 filings, are massive index and mutual fund managers:

• FMR LLC: Holding over 60.25 million shares.
• Vanguard Group Inc.: Holding over 51.29 million shares.
• BlackRock, Inc.: Holding over 40.19 million shares.

These firms are primarily passive investors, holding the stock across numerous index and mutual funds. Their sheer size means they are essentially long-term holders, but any shift in their passive mandates can still create volatility.

Investment Motivations: Growth, Not Income

Investors are attracted to ON Semiconductor Corporation for two main reasons: its exposure to powerful, secular growth trends and its capital return policy, which is centered on buybacks. The company does not pay a cash dividend, with the TTM (Trailing Twelve Months) dividend payout as of November 17, 2025, being $0.00.

The core motivation is the company's strategic shift toward intelligent power and sensing solutions, particularly its leadership in Silicon Carbide (SiC) chips. These chips are essential for the high-efficiency power management needed in Electric Vehicles (EVs) and industrial applications like renewable energy grids and automation.

Here's the quick math on the company's financial health, based on the 2025 fiscal year data:

The most compelling financial action for investors is the massive capital return program. In November 2025, the company authorized a $6.00 billion share repurchase plan. Since the program's inception, ON Semiconductor Corporation has repurchased $2.1 billion in shares, with $861 million remaining on the prior authorization at the end of Q3 2025. This is a huge vote of confidence from management, signaling they believe the stock is undervalued. If you want to dive deeper into the strategic direction, check out the Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of ON Semiconductor Corporation (ON).

Investment Strategies in Play

Given the company's profile, three main strategies are evident among the investor base:

Long-Term Growth Investing: This is the dominant strategy. Investors are buying and holding for the multi-year secular tailwinds in electrification and industrial automation. They see the current market challenges as temporary cyclical weakness. Analysts, on average, forecast 2025 full-year earnings per share of $2.60, and these investors are focused on the 2026-2030 outlook for SiC-driven revenue growth.

Value Investing: Despite the growth narrative, the stock is also appealing to value-oriented funds. Based on 2025 analyst estimates, the stock trades at roughly 14 times free cash flow and 21 times earnings. The $6.00 billion buyback authorization reinforces the value thesis-management is putting its money where its mouth is, buying back shares because they see a disconnect between the stock price and the underlying business value.

Short-Term Trading and Hedge Fund Activity: Hedge funds and active traders see opportunities in the volatility inherent in the semiconductor cycle. The institutional ownership data shows a constant churn of positions: as of Q3 2025, 373 institutions increased their positions while 400 decreased theirs. This reflects the short-term tactical trading around quarterly earnings, price target adjustments, and news of key design wins, such as the stock trading up 8.72% on news of AI chip advancements in June 2025.

The vast majority of the money is betting on the long game. Finance: Keep tracking the institutional buying/selling ratio and the pace of the share repurchase program quarterly to gauge sustained confidence.

Institutional Ownership and Major Shareholders of ON Semiconductor Corporation (ON)

Institutional investors, the large money managers like mutual funds and pension funds, hold the vast majority of ON Semiconductor Corporation (ON) stock, which tells you they have significant conviction in the company's long-term strategy, particularly around silicon carbide (SiC) and automotive power solutions. The direct takeaway is that institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own approximately 97.70% of the company's stock, giving them a commanding voice in corporate decisions.

Top Institutional Investors and Their Positions

When you look at the shareholder registry, you see the usual suspects-the passive index giants-at the top. These firms buy and hold ON stock because it's a component of major market indices like the S&P 500, so they are not making a strategic bet as much as tracking the market. As of the third quarter (Q3) of 2025, the largest institutional holders were Vanguard Group Inc. and BlackRock, Inc., holding tens of millions of shares.

Here's the quick math on the top institutional holders as of September 30, 2025, excluding the significant insider/individual holding by Tpg Advisors II Inc. which holds an additional 41.36% of the company:

You can see that even among the giants, there's a mix of activity. Vanguard and BlackRock, primarily passive investors, showed minor decreases, while Fmr Llc and JPMorgan Chase & Co. were net buyers in the quarter.

Recent Shifts in Institutional Stakes: Outflows and New Buys

The overall sentiment from institutional money has been mixed, reflecting the cyclical pressures in the semiconductor industry despite ON's strong positioning in electric vehicles (EVs) and industrial power. Over the last 12 months, total institutional outflows reached approximately $6.72 billion, significantly outpacing the $3.10 billion in total inflows. Honestly, that's a big gap.

Still, a closer look reveals targeted accumulation by active managers who believe in the growth story. For example, during the first and second quarters of 2025, we saw substantial new positions and increases from specialized funds:

• Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake by a massive 2,735.5%, acquiring an additional 2,070,529 shares.
• M&G PLC lifted its holdings by 164.2%, buying 1,528,311 additional shares.
• Creative Planning raised its holdings by 358.1% in Q2 2025, adding 134,381 shares.

This tells me that while some broad-market funds might be trimming their positions due to near-term headwinds, a core group of conviction-driven investors is actively building stakes, betting on the long-term ramp-up of SiC and automotive revenue. If you want a deeper dive into the company's fundamentals, you should check out Breaking Down ON Semiconductor Corporation (ON) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

The Strategic Influence of Large Holders

These large institutional investors play a crucial, two-fold role: they affect the stock price through their sheer trading volume, and they influence corporate strategy. When firms like BlackRock or Vanguard hold such large stakes, management defintely pays attention to their feedback on capital allocation, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) matters, and executive compensation.

A concrete example of this influence is the company's recent Q3 2025 buyback announcement. The Board of Directors authorized a share repurchase plan of up to $6.00 billion, which could buy back up to 32.7% of the outstanding shares. This massive capital return commitment is a direct signal to institutional investors that management believes the stock is undervalued and is committed to boosting shareholder returns during a period of cyclical pressure. It helps support the stock price when market skepticism is high. Large holders often push for such actions to improve earnings per share (EPS) and return on equity (ROE).

Key Investors and Their Impact on ON Semiconductor Corporation (ON)

You need to know who is driving the bus, and with ON Semiconductor Corporation (ON), it's almost entirely the institutional giants. These large funds own a staggering 97.70% of the company's stock, meaning their collective decisions-not retail traders-dictate the stock's major movements.

The investor profile is defintely dominated by passive and active mutual fund managers who view ON's focus on intelligent power and sensing technologies, especially in automotive and industrial markets, as a long-term structural growth story. This is a conviction play on electric vehicles and sustainable energy. The biggest players on the roster are household names like BlackRock, Inc., Vanguard Group Inc, Fmr Llc, and State Street Corp, which collectively hold hundreds of millions of shares.

Recent Institutional Moves: Buying the Dip and Strategic Exits

The third quarter of 2025 brought some mixed signals, showing both strong conviction from buyers and strategic profit-taking or risk-off moves from others. This is a classic example of capital rotating in a cyclical industry like semiconductors.

Here's a quick snapshot of the notable Q2/Q3 2025 activity, showing where the smart money is moving:

• Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake to 5,835,332 shares, a position valued at $312,774,000 in the second quarter.
• Baillie Gifford & Co. acquired a significant new position in the first quarter, valued at $219,001,000.
• Pacer Advisors Inc. made a massive move, raising its stake by 2,735.5% to hold 2,146,221 shares in Q1 2025, betting big on the long-term thesis.
• On the selling side, Empowered Funds LLC reduced its position by 11.2% to 184,147 shares in Q2 2025, signaling a slight reduction in exposure.

You can see the clear divergence. Some funds are aggressively accumulating, while others are trimming. This is what happens when a stock faces near-term headwinds but has a compelling long-term story, like ON's projected full fiscal year 2025 EPS of $2.6.

Investor Influence and the $6.0 Billion Buyback

While there hasn't been a high-profile activist investor filing a Schedule 13D (a filing indicating an intent to influence management), the collective voice of institutional shareholders is very loud. Their influence is most visible in capital allocation decisions.

The most concrete action driven by investor sentiment is the massive share repurchase program. Management completed a Q3 2025 buyback of over $2.2 billion of shares, representing nearly 8.5% of the outstanding stock. But they didn't stop there. On November 18, 2025, the board authorized a new stock buyback program of $6.00 billion, which could repurchase up to 32.7% of outstanding shares. This is a huge commitment.

Here's the quick math: A buyback of this scale is a clear signal to the market that management, under pressure from shareholders, believes the stock is undervalued and that returning capital is a better use of cash than other investments right now. It provides a strong floor for the stock price and boosts earnings per share (EPS) by reducing the share count. This kind of action is a direct response to market skepticism following the recent decline in institutional ownership and rising short interest. For a deeper dive into the company's strategic priorities, you can look at the Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of ON Semiconductor Corporation (ON).

The key takeaway is that the vast institutional ownership means you should pay close attention to the 13F filings. If the largest holders like Vanguard or BlackRock start making significant, non-index-related sales, that's a red flag. For now, the overwhelming institutional presence and the massive buyback signal a belief in the long-term value, despite the short-term revenue decline seen in Q3 2025 compared to the previous year.

Market Impact and Investor Sentiment

You're looking at ON Semiconductor Corporation (ON) and seeing a mixed picture in the institutional investor landscape, and that's a fair assessment. The short-term sentiment is cautiously optimistic, but it's been tempered by recent financial results, creating a classic disconnect between long-term strategy and near-term execution risk. Institutional investors and hedge funds still own a significant portion of the company, holding approximately 97.70% of the stock, which shows strong conviction in the long-term story, but the recent activity points to a rotation.

Following the Q3 2025 earnings report in November 2025, which saw revenue decline year-over-year, we observed a decline in overall institutional fund ownership and a rise in short interest (a bet the stock price will fall). This shift underscores market uncertainty around the short-term recovery, specifically the time it will take for the company's strategic investments in Silicon Carbide (SiC) and automotive power solutions to fully offset cyclical pressures. It's a classic case of investors selling on the news, even when the news is technically an earnings beat.

• Institutional ownership is high, but fund sentiment is mixed.
• Rising short interest signals near-term skepticism.
• Management's buyback suggests they see the stock as undervalued.

Recent Market Reactions to Investor Moves

The stock market's response to ON Semiconductor Corporation's Q3 2025 results was a clear example of high expectations meeting cyclical reality. The company reported diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.63, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59, on revenue of $1.55 billion, which also topped expectations of $1.52 billion. Still, the stock traded down about 1.9% in pre-market action. That's a tough pill to swallow: beat the numbers but still drop. The market was likely reacting to the Q4 2025 guidance, which set non-GAAP EPS between $0.57 and $0.67, suggesting continued softness.

On the flip side, the board's massive stock buyback authorization of $6.00 billion, announced in November 2025, is a powerful counter-signal. This authorization permits the repurchase of up to 32.7% of outstanding shares, which tells you management defintely believes the stock is undervalued at its current price. It's a direct, concrete action to return capital and support the stock price, a move that often stabilizes the market during periods of skepticism, especially for investors concerned about Breaking Down ON Semiconductor Corporation (ON) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

Who's Buying and Why: A Look at Major Shareholders

The institutional shareholder base for ON Semiconductor Corporation is dominated by some of the largest asset managers in the world, which is typical for a company with a market capitalization of around $18.33 billion. These are your long-haul players, the ones who buy for decades, not days. The largest shareholders include Vanguard Group Inc., BlackRock, Inc., Fmr Llc, and State Street Corp. These firms collectively hold hundreds of millions of shares, representing a passive, index-driven vote of confidence in the semiconductor sector's long-term growth.

However, a closer look at 13F filings for the second quarter of 2025 shows a more nuanced picture among active managers. For example, Creative Planning lifted its holdings by a massive 358.1%, acquiring an additional 134,381 shares worth $9,010,000. Conversely, Empowered Funds LLC reduced its position by 11.2%, selling 23,174 shares. This activity shows a clear divergence: some funds are aggressively accumulating, betting on the recovery and the SiC/AI story, while others are de-risking in the face of cyclical headwinds.

Analyst Perspectives and the Investor Impact

The consensus among the 29 Wall Street analysts covering ON Semiconductor Corporation is currently split, with 14 analysts rating the stock a 'Buy' and 14 assigning a 'Hold' rating. This translates to an overall consensus rating of 'Hold' or a split 'Buy/Hold,' depending on the aggregation method, but the average price target tells the real story. The average 12-month price target is approximately $59.08, representing a potential upside of nearly 29.67% from the recent price of $45.56.

Here's the quick math: Analysts are forecasting a full-year 2025 EPS of $2.60. This implies a forward P/E multiple of about 17.5x at the target price of $59.08, which is a reasonable valuation for a company with ON's growth trajectory in the electric vehicle (EV) and industrial power markets. Firms like TD Cowen raised their price target to $60.00 in November 2025, reiterating a 'Buy' rating. They see the short-term inventory correction as temporary and believe the company's focus on high-margin, high-growth applications like automotive and AI data centers will drive significant margin expansion and earnings growth in 2026 and beyond. The analyst community is essentially telling you to look past the current dip and focus on the company's long-term transformation story.