Who owns the two companies.
Largest reported shareholders, the buyback that grows every passive stake automatically, and the banks that finance the sector. Percentages reflect the as-of date of each filing and move with buybacks.
GEO Group (about 139M to 142M shares outstanding)
| Holder | Shares / stake | As of |
|---|---|---|
| BlackRock, Inc. | 20.6M shares, about 15% | May 2026 (13F); proxy 13G/A: 19.9M at Sept 30, 2024 |
| The Vanguard Group | 13.6M shares, about 10% | 2026 proxy, citing 13G |
| Pentwater Capital Management | Top-five 13F holder | Aug 2026 (Fintel) |
| UBS Group AG | Top-ten 13F holder | Aug 2026 (Fintel) |
| State Street; Cooper Creek Partners; Group One Trading | Top-ten 13F holders | Aug 2026 (Fintel) |
| Insiders, led by founder and CEO George Zoley | About 2% combined | May 2026 (WallStreetZen) |
CoreCivic (about 99M to 107M shares outstanding)
| Holder | Shares / stake | As of |
|---|---|---|
| BlackRock, Inc. | 17.9M shares, about 16% | Jun 2024 13F (Tickergate, May 2026) |
| The Vanguard Group | 12.2M shares, about 11% | Q1 2025 13F (MarketBeat) |
| iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF | Largest single fund holder | May 2026 (Tickergate) |
| State Street Global Advisors | About 3% | Simply Wall St |
| Next-largest 13F institutions | 10.6%, 9.2%, 3.1% stakes | TipRanks ownership page |
| Insiders (largest: director Henri L. Wedell, 2.2M shares) | 2% to 3% combined | May to Jul 2026 (WallStreetZen, Macroaxis) |
Source: GEO Group DEF 14A (2026); Fintel (Aug 2026); WallStreetZen and Tickergate (May 30, 2026); MarketBeat 13F alerts; TipRanks; Macroaxis (Jul 9, 2026); Simply Wall St (Jun 2, 2026). 13F holdings are reported with up to a 45-day lag; verify against the next proxy before external use. Estimates of total institutional ownership range from 78% to 95% for GEO and 56% to 92% for CoreCivic depending on methodology and date.
$1.2 billion, more than a third of CoreCivic's market cap.
Repurchases shrink the float and mechanically raise every remaining holder's percentage, so the stakes above drift upward without any new buying. A $500M accelerated repurchase began August 10, 2026.
Source: CoreCivic releases (Aug 4 to 10, 2026); Motley Fool (market cap).
Procurement policy, not headcount.
In 2025 the detained population rose 75 percent while GEO's market cap fell 43 percent. The 2026 re-rating (GEO 2.2x from its low, CoreCivic 2.2x) followed contract awards, the $2.2B DHS purchase of four CoreCivic facilities at $307,000 to $329,000 a bed, the buybacks, and the June 2026 standards rewrite.
Read: the disclosed risk factors are the mirror image: contract renewals (Aurora Oct 2026, California City Aug 2027), Supreme Court review of state wage and inspection laws, and litigation cost ($30M+ at GEO in 2025).
Source: MacroTrends; Investing.com; Bisnow (Aug 2026); GEO 2025 10-K. Five paired observations, illustrative only.
Check a fund.
Note: the lookup states only what the filings document. For any other fund, open its holdings list and search for GEO and CXW.
The 2019 pledges, and who stayed.
After eight major banks pledged in 2019 to stop financing the sector, Citizens Financial Group remained and, per an advocacy campaign's analysis, has since helped expand GEO's credit line by more than $200M.
Verify first: the Citizens figure is an advocacy-source claim and is held pending verification against the credit agreements before any public use.
Source: De-ICE Citizens Bank campaign (2026); bank pledge coverage (2019).
Calibrated to what an index manager can actually do.
Index funds cannot sell single names, so the asks are stewardship escalation, votes, resolutions, and screened defaults, with divestment where mandates allow.
- Escalation with deadlines and public reporting from BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street on deaths, conditions findings, and the contractor-agency contact record.
- Vote against directors absent reforms; support political-spending disclosure and human-rights due-diligence resolutions (14a-8 windows likely December 2026).
- Offer detention-screened funds as defaults in retirement plans.
- Pensions reallocate, following the New York City and CalSTRS precedent of 2018 to 2019.
- Banks honor the 2019 pledges: no new or expanded credit to the sector.
The record is public. The decisions are dated.
Aurora's contract expires October 15. Tacoma's bridge ends October 27. Three California operations come up for refunding on December 19. Tell the officials who fund them, and the shareholders who finance them, that you are watching.