Facebook now among the top 15 most widely held stocks

For the first time, Facebook is now a top 15 most widely held stock among institutional equity investors.

The social network rose again in new rankings, coming in at 14th. That means more funds own Facebook shares than they do of household names like Home Depot, Pepsi and Exxon Mobil, according to eVestment.

Facebook's performance has made it more popular to investors, moving up from a ranking of 16th in December, 23rd in September, and 35th at the end of 2014.

There was also a big shift at the top of the list. Microsoft passed Apple for the No. 2 spot. It's the first time Apple fell out of the top two since eVestment started publishing this report two years ago. Google's parent Alphabet remained at the top of the list. The three companies have been at the top of the list for every quarter of eVestment's reporting. The investment data firm tracks over 65,000 institutional portfolios.

Facebook has seen a higher ranking each quarter. As the company's user base continues to mature, so does the ownership profile of the stock, becoming more and more an institutional-friendly name.

The theme to watch is how far up the rankings can it go. Does it have the potential to reach the top three like the other major tech names, or will it settle in somewhere lower?

Another shift in the top five: JPMorgan Chase lost a spot to Johnson & Johnson. Energy names saw a boost in ownership to go along with a gain in their stock prices. Exxon Mobil, for example, returned to the top 20 list.

Here are some other winners and losers that stand out:

Focusing on the institutions that own U.S. large-cap growth equities, the biggest winners included Microsoft, McDonald's and Adobe. Each saw big increases in ownership. In particular, McDonald's saw an increase of 9.2 percent for the quarter.

The biggest losers among large-cap growth stocks included several big pharma names like McKesson, Regeneron and Gilead. Also among the top five losers were two tech firms: Tableau Software and LinkedIn.

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