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What Does Stock Ownership Breadth Measure?

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  • James J. Choi
  • Li Jin
  • Hongjun Yan

Abstract

Using holdings data on a representative sample of all Shanghai Stock Exchange investors, we show that increases in ownership breadth (the fraction of market participants who own a stock) predict low returns: highest change quintile stocks underperform lowest quintile stocks by 23% per year. Small retail investors drive this result. Retail ownership breadth increases appear to be correlated with overpricing. Among institutional investors, however, the opposite holds: Stocks in the top decile of wealth-weighted institutional breadth change outperform the bottom decile by 8% per year, consistent with prior work that interprets breadth as a measure of short-sales constraints.

Suggested Citation

  • James J. Choi & Li Jin & Hongjun Yan, 2010. "What Does Stock Ownership Breadth Measure?," NBER Working Papers 16591, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16591
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    Cited by:

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    2. Weber, Michael, 2018. "Cash flow duration and the term structure of equity returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(3), pages 486-503.
    3. Chia, Yee-Ee & Lim, Kian-Ping & Goh, Kim-Leng, 2020. "More shareholders, higher liquidity? Evidence from an emerging stock market," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    4. Ivo Welch, 2022. "The Wisdom of the Robinhood Crowd," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 77(3), pages 1489-1527, June.
    5. Hu, Yingyi & Zhao, Tiao & Zhang, Lin, 2020. "Noise trading, institutional trading, and opinion divergence: Evidence on intraday data in the Chinese stock market," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 74-89.
    6. Bastías, Jaime & Ruiz, José L., 2022. "Equity fire sales and herding behavior in pension funds," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    7. Meng, Qingbin & Li, Ying & Jiang, Xuanyu & Chan, Kam C., 2017. "Informed or speculative trading? Evidence from short selling before star and non-star analysts’ downgrade announcements in an emerging market," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 240-255.
    8. Bian, Jiangze & Chan, Kalok & Fong, Wai-Ming, 2020. "Investor participation and the volatility-volume relation: Evidence from an emerging market," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    9. Gordon, Narelle & Wu, Qiongbing, 2018. "The high-volume return premium and changes in investor recognition," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 121-136.
    10. Ma, Guangyuan & Wang, Yihong & Xu, Yekun & Zhang, Limin, 2023. "The breadth of ownership and corporate earnings management," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    11. Cao, Zhiqi & Wu, Wenfeng, 2022. "Ownership breadth: Investor recognition or short-sale constraints?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PB).
    12. Opie, Wei & Zhang, Hong Feng, 2013. "Investor heterogeneity and the cross-sectional stock returns in China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 1-20.
    13. Li Jin, 2012. "Comment on "Institutions and Information Environment of Chinese Listed Firms"," NBER Chapters, in: Capitalizing China, pages 242-246, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Cao, Zhiqi & Lv, Dayong & Sun, Zhenzhen, 2021. "Stock price manipulation, short-sale constraints, and breadth-return relationship," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    15. Gao, Shenghao & Brockman, Paul & Meng, Qingbin & Yan, Xuemin, 2020. "Differences of opinion, institutional bids, and IPO underpricing," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    16. Zhiqi Cao & Wenfeng Wu, 2023. "Difference of opinion among investors versus analysts," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(2), pages 2347-2381, June.

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    JEL classification:

    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates

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