New York – While the previous blogs have so far dealt with overall returns to measure the performance of research. Today we look at the top firms in each sector to identify those companies that have racked up the best performance in particular sectors.
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 June 30, 2007, in basis points per day
| Sector / Rank | Company | Return |
| Oil & Gas | ||
| 1 | Ladenburg Thalmann | 35.7 |
| 2 | SunTrust Robinson Humphrey | 28.6 |
| 3 | Breakaway Research | 21.3 |
| Basic Materials | ||
| 1 | Brean Murray Carret | 69.9 |
| 2 | Sterne Agee & Leach | 37.7 |
| 3 | When2Trade | 33.7 |
| Industrials | ||
| 1 | Cantor Fitzgerald | 48.6 |
| 2 | Hilliard Lyons | 41.2 |
| 3 | Maxim Group | 30.8 |
| Consumer Goods | ||
| 1 | Longbow Research | 73.3 |
| 2 | Hilliard Lyons | 59.5 |
| 3 | Taglich Brothers | 41.1 |
| Healthcare | ||
| 1 | Wedbush Morgan | 53.5 |
| 2 | Hilliard Lyons | 25.6 |
| 3 | Caris & Company | 24.7 |
| Consumer Services | ||
| 1 | BWS Financial | 265 |
| 21 | Merriman Curhan Ford | 53.3 |
| 3 | Cantor Fitzgerald | 49.1 |
| Telecommunications | ||
| 1 | Morgan Joseph | 73.1 |
| 2 | WR Hambrecht | 46.6 |
| 3 | Stanford Research | 38.9 |
| Utilities | ||
| 1 | Nollenberger Capital | 270.8 |
| 2 | Buckingham Research | 55.8 |
| 3 | Beacon Equity Research | 35.0 |
| Financials | ||
| 1 | Wasserman Morris & Co. | 108.1 |
| 2 | Morgan Joseph | 92.8 |
| 3 | Taglich Brothers | 69.3 |
| Technology | ||
| 1 | Taglich Brothers | 69.1 |
| 1 | Rodman & Renshaw | 69.1 |
| 3 | Susquenhanna Financial | 38.1 |
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: Cantor Fitzgerald, which came in 1st in Industrials and 3rd in Consumer Services; and Morgan Joseph, which came in 1st in Telecommunications and 2nd in Financials.
Those RPs with three top three finishes were Hilliard Lyons, which got a 2nd in Industrials, a 2nd in Consumer Goods and a 2nd in Healthcare; and Taglich Brothers, which came in 3rd in Consumer Goods, 3rd in Financials and 1st in Technology.
Hilliard Lyons is an investment bank which uses a fundamental approach to cover a modest number (131) small cap companies in the Consumer Goods and Services, Financials, Healthcare, Technology and Telecommunications sectors. Taglich Brothers is also an invesment bank that uses a fundamental approach to cover a small number (39) of small cap stocks across all sectors.
Note: The performance data for this study is from Investars. The analysis and conclusions drawn are those of Integrity Research Associates.