Categories: OLD Media Moves

The biz media and analysts

Jonathan Berr writes on 24/7 Wall St. about the relationship between business journalists and analysts, including Rochdale Securities banking analyst Richard Bove.

Berr writes, “Bove is one of an elite group of go-to analysts who journalists can count on for pithy commentary under tight deadlines. Many analysts and fund managers are either unable or unwilling to do it because of the time involved. Others flock to the press when they can to raise their profile. Bove, for his part, has mediocre ratings which he argues is a reflection of his firm’s small size rather than his performance as an analyst. For instance, in order to do well on the Institutional Investor rankings ‘you really need to have a much larger marketing force,’ he says, adding that he last ranked on the list for 9 years in the 1980s. ‘My work is judged by how much money I bring in.’

“Some analysts with great reputations in the media, such as Meredith Whitney, who is credited with being one of the first to see the coming financial crisis in 2007 and is now forecasting a wave a municipal defaults, also are not considered by Institutional Investor and Starmine, another rating service owned by Thomson Reuters, to be among the best in their field. Neither is Gene Munster of Pipper Jaffray, the often-quoted pundit on Apple Inc., or banking analyst Mike Mayo of Caylon Securities, rival of Bove. Some analysts are quoted more often than they should be because they are accessible to the press, either because they are publicity hounds by nature or their firms force them to be that way. Reporters and producers also turn to analysts like them oftentimes out of habit or laziness.

“Sadly, their mediocre performance may not matter. The media loves to write about colorful analysts such as Bove even if they think they are wrong.”