JPMorgan Chase was voted the best US sell-side research firm in a widely followed investor survey, reclaiming the top spot that bank occupied for most of the past decade.
Bank of America, which ended JPMorgan’s seven-year lead in 2023, slipped to the second place in the latest survey by Extel, formally known as Institutional Investor. Morgan Stanley was ranked third, followed by Evercore ISI and Jefferies Financial Group.
Ex-JPMorgan employee Marko Kolanovic was picked as the best performer in equity-linked strategies, while Piper Sandler’s Michael Kantrowitz won as the No 1 portfolio strategist. Yin Luo at Wolfe Research took the first place in quantitative research.
Evercore ISI’s Ed Hyman was voted as the top economist – a title he has earned 44 times in the 53-year history of the equity research survey. The firm’s chartist, Rich Ross, was chosen again as the best technical analyst, while Krishna Guha kept the top spot in Washington research.
Predicting this year’s economic and financial performance has been challenging for many forecasters as the economy and corporate profits have proved more resilient than expected. Meanwhile, optimism over artificial intelligence has continued to propel technology stocks.
Earlier this year, Piper’s team led by Kantrowitz stopped publishing price targets for the S&P 500 Index, saying predicting its performance in absolute terms has become futile in light of Big Tech’s dominance.
The S&P 500 has eclipsed the average year-end target of 4,867 at the start of the year by 20 per cent based on Monday’s closing level around 5,823. Strategists have upgraded their outlooks to keep up with the rally, with firms including Goldman Sachs Group and UBS Group raising their targets repeatedly since late last year.
The 2024 ranking tallied ratings from 4,351 individuals at 1,669 institutions. BLOOMBERG
