ResearchWatch from Integrity Research Associates

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Sector Performance - Q4 07

New York - Each Quarter, Integrity Research Associates, utilizing Investars data, tabulates the winners in terms of a Research Providers' recommendations. Using these recommendations, Investars calculates the return an investor would have achieved, had she followed all of the recommendations of the RP. On Thursday, we looked at the overall performance of the Buys and Sells of the research providers. Today, we look at the performance of the RPs in each economic sector.

The table below shows all of the top three companies in each of 10 sectors, including Oil & Gas, Basic Materials, Industrials, Consumer Goods, Healthcare, Consumer Services, Telecommunications, Utilities, Financials, and Technology.

Returns of the Buys less the Sells for each Sector
Period ended December 31, 2007, in basis points per day

Sector / Rank	Company	Return
Oil & Gas
1	SunTrust Robinson Humphrey	31.4
2	Capital One Services	27.7
3	Deusche Bank	25.8
Basic Materials
1	Taglich Brothers	104.2
2	Brean Murray, Carret & Co.	43.3
3	Robert W. Baird	42.0
Industrials
1	Nollenberger Capital Partners	140.0
2	Susquehanna Financial Corp	75.1
3	Morgan Joseph	71.9
Consumer Goods
1	Henley & Co	78.3
2	First Albany Capital	50.5
3	BWS Financial	48.0
Healthcare
1	BMO Capital Markets	151.3
2	BWS Financial	39.7
3	Barrington Research	36.7
Consumer Services
1	Susquehanna Financial	160.0
2	B. Riley & Co	149.4
3	Canaccord Adams	56.2
Telecommunications
1	WR Hambrecht	45.17
2	Morgan Joseph	43.6
3	William Blair	30.3
Utilities
1	Janney Montgomery Scott	207.1
2	Dutton Associates	44.3
3	Beacon Equity Research	33.1
Financials
1	DA Davidson	165.8
2	Wasserman Morris	88.9
3	Fundamental Research Corp	30.6
Technology
1	Wedbush Morgan	70.3
1	Taglich Brothers	45.5
3	First Albany Capital	34.5

Firms that are the best in each sector, or are in the top three have made impressive research calls over the one year period covered. However, an even more impressive research recommendation performance is to be in the top three in more than one sector.

Those RPs with two top three finishes include: Taglich Brothers, Susquehanna Financial, Morgan Joseph, First Albany Capital and BWS Financial.

Brief descriptions of these companies follow.

Taglich Brothers provides research, price targets and recommendations on a universe of 39 companies. Research is distributed broadly to retail and institutional clients through the company's website. Most of the companies under coverage pay a monthly fee for the creation and dissemination of research reports; some pay an initial retainer. Details of compensation from such companies are available upon request and are contained in the disclaimer of each report presently on the firm's web site. Taglich also host an annual "Small Cap Equity Conference" for small cap company executives and institutional investors interested in small cap investments.

Susquehanna International Group LLC (SIG) is a diversified financial services firm focused on trading, investment banking, private equity, venture capital, institutional sales and research. The firm is headquartered in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, and has offices in the U.S., Europe and Asia. The firm's research staff includes a team of sector specialists and market researchers. The Equity Research team employs fundamental analysis to provide research on approximately 300 companies in several industries. Most of the companies within its coverage universe are small cap firms, though it also covers mid and large cap firms as well. SIG investigates all aspects of a company's business, evaluating the supply chain and demand curve, new product prospects, peer analysis, etc. The Market Intelligence team is divided into six product areas that work together to provide market commentary, actionable ideas and trading strategies. The six market intelligence teams include: Trading Intelligence (analysis of trades from options, credit and other derivative and equity markets that may impact stocks or sectors and real-time analysis of stock and sector sentiment); Derivative Research (price and volatility analysis overlaid with SIG's equity analysts' and/or Street expectations to suggest strategies and highlight potential market inefficiencies); Event Driven Research (tracking of key 'volatility events' that may impact a stock or a sector, including breaking news, M&A transactions and special situations); Washington Research (evaluation of legislative and regulatory initiatives and the subsequent impact on stocks and sectors); Product Generation (regular reporting and commentary on the market's news of note); and Ripple Analysis (analysis of the sector food chain through investigation of customer, supplier and competitor relationships).
Morgan Joseph is a middle market investment bank with over 130 employees and seven offices across the U.S. The company is primarily involved in raising capital for mid-sized firms, in US, Asia and Europe. Headquartered in New York, it offers fundamental research and is focused on small and mid-cap stocks that are under-followed by the bulge bracket firms and are deemed to have substantive growth opportunities. The firm has 10 analysts covering the biotech, diversified industrials, gaming, hardlines & leisure, telecom, softlines, restuarants, technology and special situations.

First Albany Capital Inc. is an investment bank that offers equity capital markets and municipal capital markets services. The firm's research department covers small and mid-cap stocks (roughly 75% of the companies under coverage are small caps). The firm focuses its research primarily on emerging growth industries within the fields of Energy, Healthcare, Technology, and Consumer/Specialty Growth. Its research methodology integrates quantitative and qualitative research, including industry due diligence with customers, suppliers, and competitors; channel checks; and financial modeling.

BWS Financial is an independent research firm that offers fundamental equity research to institutional investors. The firm covers the biotechnology, telecommunications, and technology sectors, and focuses on stocks with a market cap below $5 billion. Beating Wall Street, Inc. was founded by Hamed Khorsand in the year 2000 to provide investors with information on investing and stocks. Mr. Khorsand took the company a step further in 2002 by offering portfolio management services to individuals and business owners by becoming a Registered Independent Advisor (RIA). In 2003 Mr. Khorsand noticed that there financial institutions could benefit from the physical research he was conducting on finding undervalued high-growth companies. At that time Mr. Khorsand initiated providing independent stock research reports to Wall Street Firms looking for in-depth research on companies that are typically under the radar.

Note: The performance data for this study is from Investars. The analysis and conclusions drawn are those of Integrity Research Associates.

Posted at 10:20 am by Thomas Hutchinson
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