Who Owns Lockheed Martin: The Largest Shareholders Overview

Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT) is a company developing, producing, and servicing fighter jets, helicopters, and other defense systems. It makes money by selling those products mainly to U.S. Government, its primary customer. Let’s now look at who owns Lockheed Martin and controls it.

Lockheed Martin’s largest shareholders are asset manager State Street, which owns 14.9% share, followed by asset managers Vanguard (9.0%) and BlackRock (7.0%). State Street’s stake is enormous, and most of it results from investment by Lockheed’s pension trust in Lockheed shares.

Lockheed Martin's Largest Shareholders (Dec 2022)
	Shareholder	Ownership	Voting Power
	State Street	14.9%	14.9%
	Vanguard	9.0%	9.0%
	BlackRock	7.0%	7.0%
	Other	69.1%	69.1%
Listed are shareholders holding >5% of any share class or notable in other ways
Source: Multiple SEC filings

In this article, I will dive more into who owns Lockheed Martin and who controls it. I will show you who Lockheed Martin’s largest shareholders are, how many shares and votes they have, and how much their stake is worth.

If you are interested, you can also explore who owns other companies like Tesla, Apple, Alphabet(Google), Volkswagen, or Coca-cola.

📃 Who Owns Lockheed Martin?

Lockheed Martin is owned by its shareholders. The largest one is asset manager State Street, which beneficially owns 14.9% of the company, followed by asset managers Vanguard, with a 9.0% ownership share, and BlackRock, with a 7.0% ownership share.

The largest owner of Lockheed Martin is investment manager State Street, its beneficial ownership of 14.9% is enormous for an asset manager, and most of it results from investment by Lockheed Martin’s pension trust in Lockheed shares.

• State Street is a large asset manager but still roughly half the size of Vanguard and BlackRock. Therefore it is obvious that such a high ownership stake is not a result of the “normal” allocation of State Street’s underlying funds.
• State Street’s enormous stake in Lockheed Martin results from State Street acting as an investment manager for Lockheed’s pension plans “Master Trust,” which is concentrated in Lockheed’s stocks.
• From 14.9% ownership reported by State Street, the vast majority (10.47%) is the interest of Lockhed’s pension plans “Master Trust.”
• Lockheed pension funds assets have quite a concentration (over 20%) in Lockheed Martin ‘s shares.

If we put State Street’s stake aside, no shareholder has a dominant stake in the company. Lockheed Martin’s largest shareholders are asset managers Vanguard and Blackrock, who invest money on behalf of their clients.

Lockheed Martin was formed in 1995 by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta, and it has also been publicly listed since then under the ticker LMT.

Lockheed Martin Corporation is incorporated in the State of Maryland (US), and it also has its headquarters there in Bethesda.

🎮 Who Controls Lockheed Martin (LMT)?

Lockheed Martin’s shareholders with the largest voting power are State Street, which holds 14.9% of all votes, followed by Vanguard (9.0%) and BlackRock (7.0%).

Lockheed Martin has only one class of outstanding shares, with one vote per share. Therefore, there is no difference between the shareholder’s ownership and voting power.

The ownership of Lockheed Martin Corporation is quite dispersed, and the main shareholders are asset managers investing money on behalf of their clients. None of them control the company individually, but together they have a big influence.

Lockheed Martin ‘s dispersed ownership creates conflicts of interest between Lockheed Martin ‘s management, asset manager’s management, and ultimate underlying investors that asset managers represent. In situations like these, insiders of the large asset manager shareholders and insiders of the company hold significant power over it.

However, the power of insiders is even stronger in Lockheed Martin thanks to significant ownership of Lockheed’s shares by various company-managed pension saving plans. These are officially reported as beneficially owned by State Street, but the real power is in the hand of company management and board since they are the ones who can decide to give this business to another investment manager.

In the case of Lockheed Martin, insiders are represented by James D. Taiclet, who is CEO, president, and also chairman, and other board members and executives.

• Lockheed Martin currently has a 13-member board of directors.
• Nobody from the board of directors or executive officers holds more than 0.05% share of Lockheed Martin ‘s stocks.

Significant influence over the company has, understandably, also the U.S. Government, especially the Department of Defence as the only relevant customer. We can also see a couple of retired generals on Lockheed Martin’s board of directors.

🗳️ Breakdown of Lockheed Martin’s Outstanding Shares and Votes by Top Shareholders

Lockheed Martin Corporation had a total of 254 million outstanding shares as of December 2022. The following table shows how many shares each Lockheed Martin’s large shareholder holds.

Lockheed Martin's Outstanding Shares by Shareholder
In millions of shares as of December 2022
	Shareholder	Class A	Total	% Share
	State Street	38	38	14.9%
	Vanguard	23	23	9.0%
	BlackRock	18	18	7.0%
	Other	176	176	69.1%
	Total (# millions)	254	254	100.0%
Listed are shareholders holding >5% of any share class or notable in other ways
Source: Multiple SEC filings

There were 254 million votes distributed among shareholders of Lockheed Martin Corporation. The table below shows the total number of votes for each large shareholder.

Lockheed Martin's Vote Control by Shareholder
In millions of votes as of December 2022
	Shareholder	Class A	Total	% Share
	State Street	38	38	14.9%
	Vanguard	23	23	9.0%
	BlackRock	18	18	7.0%
	Other	176	176	69.1%
	Total (# millions)	254	254	100.0%
Listed are shareholders holding >5% of any share class or notable in other ways
Source: Multiple SEC filings

💵 Breakdown of Lockheed Martin’s Market Value by Shareholder

The following table summarizes how much is each shareholder’s stake in Lockheed Martin Corporation worth.

However, keep in mind that a stake in Lockheed Martin could be just one part of their portfolio, and their total worth could be bigger, thanks to other investments. It could also be lower if they have debts.

Lockheed Martin's Market Value by Shareholder
Market value in billions $ as of December 2022
	Shareholder	Class A	Total	% Share
	State Street	$18.4	$18.4	14.9%
	Vanguard	$11.1	$11.1	9.0%
	BlackRock	$8.7	$8.7	7.0%
	Other	$85.4	$85.4	69.1%
	Total ($ billions)	$123.6	$123.6	100.0%
Listed are shareholders holding >5% of any share class or notable in other ways
Source: Multiple SEC filings

Let’s now look at each Lockheed Martin shareholder individually.

📒 Who Are Lockheed Martin’s Largest Shareholders?

Let’s now go through the list of the largest shareholders of Lockheed Martin Corporation one by one and look at who they are, how many shares they own, what is their voting power, and how much is their stake in Lockheed Martin worth.

#1 State Street (14.9%)

State Street is the largest shareholder of Lockheed Martin, owning 14.9% of its shares. As of December 2022, the market value of State Street’s stake in Lockheed Martin was $18.4 billion.

State Street owned 38 million shares in Lockheed Martin and controlled 38 million shareholder votes as of December 2022.

State Street Corporation is one of the largest asset managers in the world, with 4 trillion assets under management. It makes money mainly from servicing and management fees.

In 1993 company introduced the SPDR S&P 500 Trust ETF (traded under ticker SPY).** It was the first exchange-traded fund, and State Street is now one of the largest ETF providers in the world.

State Street is a publicly traded company, and its largest shareholders are, ironically, its competitors, Vanguard and Blackrock. One of its largest shareholders is even State Street itself. Not directly but through their passive and active funds.

This circular ownership between State Street, Vanguard, BlackRock, and other large asset managers, amplifies the issue often raised about the power of these large asset managers over public companies where they usually belong to the most significant shareholders.

#2 Vanguard (9.0%)

Vanguard is the second-largest shareholder of Lockheed Martin, owning 9.0% of its shares. As of December 2022, the market value of Vanguard’s stake in Lockheed Martin was $11.1 billion.

Vanguard owned 23 million shares in Lockheed Martin and controlled 23 million shareholder votes as of December 2022.

Vanguard (The Vanguard Group) is one of the largest asset managers in the world. It manages other people’s money through its mutual funds and exchange-traded funds and also offers other related investing and financial planning services.

Vanguard differs from other large asset managers by having no actual “owner .” Officially Vanguard says that its investors own it since its funds own it, and Vanguard fund investors own those funds.

However, the actual decision power is in the hands of Vanguard’s insiders since the ownership is diluted over millions of investors worldwide.

Vanguard has significant influence over the largest public companies. Thanks to its size, Vanguard usually belongs to the largest shareholders in those companies and has considerable power at their shareholder meetings. This is especially true if ownership is diluted.

• Several terms were coined to describe this issue. Some call it asset manager capitalism, and popular is also the power of twelve. Financial Times even put together who exactly those twelve people might be.
• Evidence shows that big asset managers usually vote together with management.

#3 BlackRock (7.0%)

BlackRock is the third-largest shareholder of Lockheed Martin, owning 7.0% of its shares. As of December 2022, the market value of BlackRock’s stake in Lockheed Martin was $8.7 billion.

BlackRock owned 18 million shares in Lockheed Martin and controlled 18 million shareholder votes as of December 2022.

BlackRock, Inc. is the world’s largest asset manager, with assets under management of $10 trillion. BlackRock is not only an asset manager, but it also provides other asset managers and corporations with its Aladdin portfolio management software.

BlackRock is a publicly traded company, and its largest shareholders are its competitors, including BlackRock itself. Not directly but through their passive and active funds. The largest shareholder is Vanguard.

A similar situation is also true in the opposite direction because BlackRock is a significant shareholder in many of its publicly traded competitors and other large institutions, making the whole thing even more eyebrow-raising.

This circular ownership between Vanguard, BlackRock, and other large asset managers, amplifies the issue often raised about the power of these large asset managers over public companies since they usually belong to the most significant shareholders with large voting power.

• In the case of Blackrock, this influence is personified in the form of its CEO Larry Fink, who is a powerful figure with close ties to the FED and US government.

• Adding to these concerns is evidence that BlackRock and other asset managers usually vote in favor of management proposals.

❔ Does the U.S. Government Own Lockheed Martin?

U.S. Government does not own shares in Lockheed Martin, at least not publicly. But U.S. Government is the primary customer and has a big influence over Lockheed Martin because the company would hardly survive without U.S. government spending.

The U.S. Government, represented mainly by the U.S. Department of Defence, was responsible for 71% of Lockheed Martin net sales, and most of the rest were sales to foreign governments contracted through the U.S. government.

We can also see a couple of retired generals on Lockheed Martin’s board of directors

🧱 Who and When Founded Lockheed Martin?

Lockheed Martin was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995.

• Lockheed Martin’s history was started in 1912 by Alan and Malcolm Lockheed (Loughead). However, the business folded several times before it finally got some traction after the Great Depression.
• Martin Marietta was formed in 1961 by the merger of the Glenn L. Martin Company and the American Marietta Corporation.

Lockheed Martin is currently one of the world’s largest defense contractors. Among its most recognized products are fighter jets F16, F22, F35, transport aircraft C130 Hercules, or Patriot missiles.

📅 Lockheed Martin’s History Timeline

These are selected events from Lockheed Martin’s history:

• 1912: Lockheed Corporation was founded by Alan and Malcolm Lockheed (Loughead).
• 1961: Martin Marietta was formed in 1961 by the merger of the Glenn L. Martin Company and the American Marietta Corporation.
• 1995: Lockheed Martin was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta

📚 Recommended Articles & Other Resources

Who Owns Apple: The Largest Shareholders Overview
Visual overview of who owns Apple and who controls it. With a list of the largest shareholders and how much is each of their stake worth.

Who Owns Coca-Cola: The Largest Shareholders Overview
Overview of who owns the Coca-Cola Company and who controls it. With a list of the largest shareholders and how much is each of their stake worth.

Who Owns Paypal: The Largest Shareholders Overview
Overview of who owns PayPal and who controls it. With a list of the largest shareholders and how much is each of their stake worth.

Who Owns Tesla: The Largest Shareholders Overview
Overview of who owns Tesla and who controls it. With a list of the largest shareholders and how much is each of their stake worth.

Who Owns Volkswagen: The Largest Shareholders Overview
Overview of who owns Volkswagen and who controls it. With a list of the largest shareholders and how much is each of their stake worth.

Who Owns Ferrari: The Largest Shareholders Overview
Overview of who owns Ferrari and who controls it. With a list of the largest shareholders and how much is each of their stake worth

Other Resources

• Lockheed Martin’s Annual Financials Statements (K-10)
• Lockheed Martin’s Proxy Statement
• Lockheed Martin’s Charter

Disclaimer: Although I use third-party trademarks and logos in this article and its visuals, kamilfranek.com is an independent site, and there is no relationship, sponsorship, or endorsement between this site and the owners of those trademarks.