Institutional Ownership and Return Predictability across Economically Unrelated Stocks
February 26, 2013 Leave a comment
Institutional Ownership and Return Predictability across Economically Unrelated Stocks
Cornell University – Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management
Cornell University
Cornell University
February 12, 2013
Abstract:
We document strong weekly return predictability across the stocks of firms that are from industries with no customer-supplier linkages (economically unrelated stocks). This predictability arises from common institutional ownership rather than from the slow information diffusion underlying previously documented lead-lag effects. The return predictability occurs only among stocks with common institutional investors, and the profitability of a long-short portfolio strategy based on the predicted returns varies positively with the level of common institutional ownership. Our results are not explained by weekly reversals, momentum, or nonsynchronous trading. Our findings suggest that institutional portfolio reallocations can induce return predictability among otherwise unrelated stocks.