Top Global Research Firms

Overview

Last year saw a plethora of market sea changes — but the top global sell-side research firms were there to help institutional investors steady the ship.

“2022 presented many challenges for markets,” said Hussein Malik, co-head of global research for JPMorgan Chase & Co. “With persistent inflation, central bank tightening, the war in Ukraine, the rise in energy prices, and the decline in market liquidity, 2022 was a challenging year for markets. As goal posts moved across many of these key drivers for markets, our researchers had to adjust their thinking to provide their best ideas to clients.”

It was a year of “transition,” according to BofA Securities’ head of global research Candace Browning. “You started the year with very low interest rates, and high growth. You ended the year with lower growth, and higher interest rates, and higher inflation,” she said. “I think that it was a year that was characterized by changes in the macro environment, which obviously presented a lot of challenges, but it also presented opportunities. It was a year of enormous change.”

Morgan Stanley’s global director of research Katy Huberty concurred. “Macro dominated markets, but our strategists had the right market call heading into the year,” she said. “As a result, our sector analysts were able to focus more closely on the trajectories of their industries and companies coming out of the pandemic — which trends were likely to revert, and which elements have permanently shifted.”

Despite — or maybe because of — this volatility, the buy-side has stuck with a cadre of top firms in Institutional Investor’s 2022 ranking of the Global Research Leaders, which recognizes the sell-side research providers with the highest combined total number of positions earned across II’s annual equity, fixed-income, and developed and emerging markets surveys.

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