By: Larry MacDonald
The research team at BMO Capital Markets has been ranked No. 1 in Canada for 27 consecutive years by the Brendan Wood International (BWI) survey of institutional investors - yet a prominent U.S. firm that ranks brokerage research, Investars.com, puts BMO Capital 37th out of 39 firms over the past four years (for firms with 100 to 499 reports).
Tallying buy, sell, and neutral ratings, BMO Capital’s reports noticeably lost money. Buy recommendations went up 52.5% of the time while sell recommendations went down 40% of the time.
Canadian peers are doing better in the Investar.com ratings. RBC Capital and CIBC World Markets, for example, have marginally positive and negative returns, respectively, for their reports over the past four years. RBC buy recommendations were up 55.4% of the time while CIBC buys were up 54.1% of the time.
So, what gives? Why is BMO so highly regarded in the BWI survey but scores so poorly in Investar.com? Maybe it has something to do with how Investar.com compiles its numbers? Or is the BWI survey just a popularity poll to see which brokerages have the best images with institutional investors?
