Intuitively, exercise of growth opportunities should have a larger impact on the risk and return characteristics ofsmall rather than large firms. This is what we find in Panel B of Table III, where we present evidence on the association between investment and subsequent stock returns, controlling for market value of equity. Stocks are classified into three groups based on size each June, and then into five quintile portfolios based on prior investment growth. The return difference (t-stat) between the lowest and the highest investment groups is 0.56% (3.82) for small stocks, 0.48% (4.02) for midsize stocks, and 0.43% (3.11) for large stocks. Hence, even among medium and large firms, high rates ofpastinvestment growth predict lower subsequent average returns.