Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Michael Carroll, and I am the editor of Institutional Investor magazine.
I am delighted to welcome you all here tonight to celebrate the winners of this year’s All-America Research Team awards, honoring the best equity research analysts of the past year.
As a journalist, I have to say that it is a real pleasure for me to spend an evening in the company of members of a profession that has come to be nearly as beloved, honored, respected and trusted by the American people as my own.
Things have certainly changed these past few years. Not long ago Alan Greenspan was speaking about irrational exuberance. Today we wallow in “rational despair.” This mood actually suits many New Yorkers better; it confirms our worldview. And it has freed us from our obsession with stocks, P/E ratios and earnings-per-share estimates, allowing us to focus on the kind of analysis dearest to New Yorkers’ hearts:
Pyschoanalysis.
My mom always said, “If I could afford a shrink, I wouldn’t need one.”
There are a lot of needy investors today.
What they need is good advice. And what Wall Street needs to do is provide it. Throw out the scoundrels; reform bad practices; and get down to good, independent work with unquestioned integrity.
This is the paradox we face today. Scandals notwithstanding, after three rotten years in the market, people need, more than ever, good advice. And that means fundamental research.
Institutional Investor magazine has been presenting the best research analysts for 31 years now, through bear markets and bull markets. What we do is simple: We ask the biggest investors here in the U.S. and around the world who -- in their opinion -- has done the best work over the preceding year.
What these money managers, who invest trillions of dollars on behalf of pensions and tens of millions of ordinary Americans, have told us repeatedly is that what matters most to them is analysts’ Industry Knowledge, Integrity & Professionalism and Accessibility & Responsiveness. To these institutional investors, who maintain their own sizable research departments, stock selection is almost an afterthought. This year it ranked as the 11th-most important attribute in assessing the quality of an analyst’s work.
Tonight’s honorees, selected by a record number of voters, represent the finest this profession has to offer. Each and every one of you should be extremely proud of your achievement, perhaps doubly so in an extremely trying year.
Now let me tell you a little about the evening. Once I finish speaking, Phil Lynch, the CEO of Reuters America, which sponsors our teams around the world, will introduce our master of ceremonies, CNBC’s resident brain, David Faber.
David will then take us through the awards ceremony. Those winning analysts here tonight should come up front and collect their awards from me and our guest presenters. One note: We have a number of awards to get through, so we do not have time for any Oscar-style acceptance speeches.
Please save those for home and the shower -- or your pets.
After dinner we will be treated to an address from tonight’s guest of honor, New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. After he speaks, David will direct a few questions his way.
When we have finished the second set of awards, our other lead sponsor for this dinner, Multex, will say a few words before we present the award for the best overall research team for 2002. Once we have done this, the evening is concluded, and you are free to proceed to the bar of your choice.
Before I hand this over to Phil, I would like to take the opportunity to thank those winning analysts who are here tonight for joining us and in particular our sponsors for this dinner, Reuters and Multex, for their kind support. I’d also like to thank Nasdaq, which sponsored cocktail hour. Nothing ails the market that a good open bar can’t begin to cure.
Without the help of such generous sponsors, we would not have been able to put on such an evening for you tonight.
For recent articles on Wall Street research, its history and conflicts, please go to www.institutionalinvestor.com/research .
