Moreover, the study finds an evidence of a positive relationship between the percentage of
institutional ownership and the growth rate. In addition, there is a strong evidence of a
positive relationship between the number of shares owned by institutional investors and
growth rate. Thus, there is a strong evidence for a positive relationship between institutional
ownership (IO and PIO) and growth rate. This result suggests that institutional investors
prefer to invest in firms with high growth opportunities. This is because high-growth firms
may bring more capital gains to institutional investors than lower-growth ones. Thus result is
consistent with Hovakimian et al. (2004), Tong and Ning (2004), and Grinstein and Michaely
(2005) findings.