Institutional ownership: does a move to a lower market cap trigger a sell-off by institutions?

Hello WSO community,

I am looking at a great GARP stock that due to the poor short-term performance & guidance and overall market turbulence moved down a notch below $1B market cap. From what I was told, institutional investors, especially big mutual funds, don't normally invest in small cap stocks and generally have a lower bound limit. Do institutional investors have to sell stocks that moved below that limit? And what is normally the lower boundary?

I appreciate your help!

3 Comments
 

Generally not a concern for actively managed funds. Most active funds are not allowed to BUY a stock below a certain market cap or liquidity requirement, but the funds can HOLD the stock if it moves below that level. We have several stocks like that in our portfolio.

On the other hand, passively managed funds might be required to sell when the index reweights.

 

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