Does Capital Structure Affect Institutional Investor Choices?

Abstract

Evidence from a panel dataset of S&P 500 firms over 1997–2001 indicates that capital structure influences institutional investors' stock-picking choices. Dividend yield has a strong negative relation to number of institutional investors, total number of shares of institutional holdings, percentage of institutional ownership, and average number of shares held by each institutional investor. Debt ratio is positively and significantly related to the average shares held by each institutional investor but negatively related to number of institutional investors. Among the control variables, firm size and three-year stock returns are significantly related to institutional ownership.