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A Glimpse Behind a Closed Door: The Long‐Term Investment Value of Buy‐Side Research and Its Effect on Fund Trades and Performance

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  • MICHAEL REBELLO
  • KELSEY D. WEI

Abstract

We examine proprietary research produced by buy‐side analysts working for a large fund management company. We find that the buy‐side research has investment value for a one‐year horizon, and the analysts producing this research exhibit differential ability that tends to persist over time. The buy‐side research strongly influences trades made by the company's funds, especially when it coveys information that is independent of the fund managers' own information, when it is produced by buy‐side analysts with good track records, and when the underlying stocks have little sell‐side coverage. The influence of sell‐side research is concentrated primarily in stocks not followed by buy‐side analysts and in funds with low overall buy‐side coverage. The company's funds that rely more heavily on buy‐side research generate superior performance.

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  • Michael Rebello & Kelsey D. Wei, 2014. "A Glimpse Behind a Closed Door: The Long‐Term Investment Value of Buy‐Side Research and Its Effect on Fund Trades and Performance," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(3), pages 775-815, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:joares:v:52:y:2014:i:3:p:775-815
    DOI: 10.1111/1475-679X.12042
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    Cited by:

    1. Brown, Lawrence D. & Call, Andrew C. & Clement, Michael B. & Sharp, Nathan Y., 2016. "The activities of buy-side analysts and the determinants of their stock recommendations," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 139-156.
    2. Steven Crawford & Wesley Gray & Bryan R. Johnson & Richard A. Price, 2018. "What Motivates Buy-Side Analysts to Share Recommendations Online?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(6), pages 2574-2589, June.
    3. Call, Andrew C. & Sharp, Nathan Y. & Shohfi, Thomas D., 2021. "Which buy-side institutions participate in public earnings conference calls? Implications for capital markets and sell-side coverage," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    4. Rahul Deb & Mallesh M. Pai & Maher Said, 2019. "Dynamic Incentives for Buy-Side Analysts," Working Papers 19-01, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
    5. Michael J. Jung & M. H. Franco Wong & X. Frank Zhang, 2018. "Buy‐Side Analysts and Earnings Conference Calls," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(3), pages 913-952, June.
    6. Cici, Gjergji & Rosenfeld, Claire, 2016. "A study of analyst-run mutual funds: The abilities and roles of buy-side analysts," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 8-29.
    7. Gjergji Cici & Philip B. Shane & Yanhua Sunny Yang, 2024. "Do buy‐side analysts inform sell‐side analyst research?," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 64(1), pages 657-691, March.
    8. Göricke, Marc-André, 2016. "Do generalists profit from the fund families' specialists? Evidence from mutual fund families offering sector funds," CFR Working Papers 16-09, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    9. Will J. Armstrong & Egemen Genc & Marno Verbeek, 2019. "Going for Gold: An Analysis of Morningstar Analyst Ratings," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(5), pages 2310-2327, May.
    10. Bingxu Fang & Ole-Kristian Hope & Zhongwei Huang & Rucsandra Moldovan, 2020. "The effects of MiFID II on sell-side analysts, buy-side analysts, and firms," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 855-902, September.

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