New York – Integrity research periodically does an evaluation of a specific research methodology in a product called ResearchFocus. Our ResearchFocus on investment strategy research firms is expected to be released in August. We have completed one piece of the process, i.e. the buy-side survey on usage, attitudes and perceived value-add of firms in the space.
We received responses from both large and small hedge funds and mutual funds. The division line for hedge funds was $1.5 billion AUM and for mutual funds it was $10 billion AUM. While the full results will be released in the Research Focus report, we can share a little of the summary information.
We asked survey respondents to tell us their top three boutique research firms (they had already given us their picks for their favorite sell-side firms in the space). The table below details the research firms most cited as the top pick by the hedge funds, long-only funds and both combined. We include only companies that received more than one vote in top spot.
| Research Provider | All | Hedge Funds | Mututal Fund |
| ISI Group | 26.3% | 13.8% | 12.5% |
| BCA Research | 13.8 | 6.3 | 7.5 |
| Credit Sights | 3.8 | 1.3 | 2.5 |
| Buckingham Research | 2.5 | 2.5 | 0 |
| Ned Davis Research | 2.5 | 1.3 | 1.3 |
| Total | 48.9 | 25.2 | 23.8 |
As is typical of many industries one fifth of the firms in the space received nearly half of the top votes. These results do not change much if we consider firms that were in the top three, rather than firms that were rated number one.