Performance of Stocks Recommended by Brokerages

Abstract

Examination of performance over 1993–2002 indicates that average quarterly and cumulative returns of stocks recommended by brokerage firms are slightly below the returns of the S&P 500. And recommended stock returns are more volatile. Stocks recommended by top-tier brokerage firms perform more poorly than those recommended by mid-tier or regional firms. There is considerable variability across recommendations of individual brokerage firms. The stock recommendations of Merrill Lynch and Raymond James show the best results among top-tier and mid-tier or regional brokerage firms. On a risk-adjusted basis, only stocks recommended by three of the ten brokerage firms with a full ten years of data outperformed the S&P 500.