J.P. MORGAN SURGES TO RECORD-BREAKING WIN IN U.S. FIXED-INCOME RESEARCH RANKING
J.P. Morgan captures a record-smashing 55 positions in the 2010 All-America Fixed-Income Research Team survey, Institutional Investor’s annual ranking of the nation’s top fixed-income analysts.
The firm picks up 13 more positions than it won last year – including seven additional analysts or teams ranked No. 1 in their respective sectors, for a total of 26 first-place finishes – and bumps down to second place the research department that had ruled the roost for the past decade, last year as part of Barclays Capital and for the nine years before that as part of Lehman Brothers.
Lehman held the previous record for most positions won: 47, in 2008. That year’s survey was completed just weeks before Lehman Brothers Holdings collapsed into bankruptcy, plunging the world into the worst financial crisis in decades. Barclays subsequently acquired Lehman’s North American operations.
BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research holds steady in third place even though it picks up six more positions, for a total of 40. Returning in fourth and fifth place, respectively, are Goldman, Sachs & Co., with 24 positions (two more than in 2009), and Wells Fargo Securities, with 15 (one more than last year). To view the complete list of winning firms, click on the Leaderboard tab above.
To view the first-place analysts and teams in each of the survey’s 61 sectors, click on Top Winners. The full list of winning analysts and teams, including those ranked second, third and runner-up, is available to subscribers only under Leading Analysts. If you are not a subscriber, click here to subscribe.
For information about how this ranking was compiled, click on Methodology.
For information about our detailed Research Team reports, please contact Alyssa Walker at awalker@iiresearchgroup.com.
Picking the Team
Institutional Investor selected the members of the 19th annual All-America Fixed-Income Research Team by surveying more than 1,100 money managers and buy-side analysts at nearly 440 institutions managing an estimated $8.9 trillion in U.S. fixed-income assets. We received responses from more than 90 percent of the 100 biggest fixed-income investors on the II300, our ranking of the biggest institutional investors in the U.S.
A numerical score was produced for individual analysts and teams by weighting each vote based on the fund manager’s U.S. fixed-income assets under management and on the rank that the respondent awarded to the individual or firm (first, second, third). Separate weightings were used for High-Yield and Emerging-Markets categories. Those scores were used to determine the respective rankings. Winners also had to achieve a minimum vote count.
Several changes were made to this year’s survey. In Research two sectors were added to Investment Grade, Aerospace & Defense and Transportation, and two were removed from Structured Securities, Collateralized Debt Obligations and Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities. In Strategy & Economics we added ABS Strategy and Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities Strategy and recategorized Emerging-Markets Sovereigns & Economics as a strategy sector. We polled 16 Investment-Grade sectors, all of which produced complete results; 19 High-Yield sectors, 17 of which produced complete results (Services had only a first-teamer, and Transportation netted only first- and second-place teams); three Emerging-Markets sectors, only one of which produced complete results (neither Emerging-Markets Corporate Credits nor Local Markets received enough votes to merit publication); eight Structured Securities sectors, all of which produced complete results; and 20 Strategy & Economics sectors, 15 of which produced complete results: Municipals Strategy produced only first- and second-place teams, Emerging-Markets Strategy landed a first-place team, and Commodities Strategy, Distressed Strategy and Quantitative Portfolio Strategy did not garner enough votes for publication.
Analysts or teams were designated runners-up when their scores fell within 35 percent of the third-teamer’s score. Analysts who changed firms after May 14, 2010, are cited at their previous organizations.
In three groups of categories — Emerging Markets, Strategy & Economics and Structured Securities — investors voted for both individual analysts and firms. In these categories we combined individual and team votes to produce a tally for each firm; for each winning squad we recognize an individual designated as team leader by the firm. Analysts must be certified pursuant to Regulation AC to be recognized as winners or team leaders in research sectors (Investment Grade, High Yield, Structured Securities); certification is not required for analysts and team leaders to be recognized in Strategy & Economics sectors.
II’s ranking of the best U.S. sell-side fixed-income researchers was compiled by Associate Editor Denise Hoguet under the direction of Senior Editor Tucker Ewing and Managing Editor Thomas W. Johnson.