Bank of America Corp. was voted as the best US sell-side research firm in the latest Institutional Investor survey, toppling JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s seven-year reign.
BofA occupied 49 positions in this year’s leaders table, with analyst Craig Siegenthaler emerging as the best-ranked in covering brokers and exchanges while Julien Dumoulin-Smith kept two leading spots in clean energy and utilities. JPMorgan grabbed 46 spots in total, followed by Morgan Stanley with 44.
Mike Wilson at Morgan Stanley, whose bearish call on US stocks has yet to pan out this year, was picked again as the best portfolio strategist. JPMorgan’s Dubravko Lakos-Bujas was ranked the No. 1 in quantitative research, while his colleague Marko Kolanovic took the first place in equity-linked strategies.
Evercore ISI maintained its fourth spot. Its Chairman Ed Hyman was voted as the top economist — a title he has earned 43 times in the 52-year history of II’s equity research survey. The firm’s chartist, Rich Ross, was chosen as the best technical analyst, while Krishna Guha gained the top spot in Washington research.
Jefferies Financial Group Inc. climbed to the fifth-best research shop, with Aniket Shah winning in environmental, social and governance research.
Predicting 2023’s economy and financial markets has proved a fool’s errand for many professional forecasters who had come into the year anticipating a recession and an equity selloff. Yet rather than contracting, the US economy has managed to chug along in the face of the Federal Reserve’s aggressive monetary tightening. Thanks to buoyant fiscal spending and optimism over artificial intelligence, the S&P 500 is up about 10% this year, defying persistent gloom calls.
“Despite a volatile economic backdrop, the demand for high quality research remains high,” Esther Weisz, a director at II, said in a statement.
The 2023 Institutional Investor ranking tallied ratings from 4,218 portfolio managers and analysts at 1,667 institutions.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.