Rising and Senior Stars in European Financial Analyst Rankings: The Talented and the Famous

Abstract

Using Institutional Investors (I/I) and Extel rankings and I/B/E/S data for European analysts over 15 years, we show that European analyst rankings are determined more by popularity than by intrinsic skills, the first determinant of recognition being employer size. Becoming an I/I star is like joining a club: talent for issuing high-quality recommendations is required to be initially ranked but is irrelevant to being re-elected or reaching the top level. Our findings also underline the importance of analyst rankings’ design features. These features could probably be improved by reducing the impact of recognition in the election process.

Keywords: Analyst forecasts, analyst rankings, reputation, analyst recommendations

JEL Classification: G17