First Coverage Releases 4th Annual Top Performer Rankings

BOSTON, Feb. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- First Coverage Inc., which provides the fastest-growing alpha capture platform worldwide and is the leader in North American equity trading content, today released its 2009 Top Performer Rankings, which recognize the best equity market institutional sales people and sell-side firms in the world.

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Robert W. Baird & Co., an employee-owned, international financial services firm with offices in the United States, Europe and Asia, ranked No. 1, outperforming more than 300 firms on the First Coverage platform.  Stuart Desmond, an Institutional Investment Officer in Baird's Milwaukee headquarters, earned the top ranking in the individual salesperson category with an average return of 47.19 percent on all ideas sent to his clients through the First Coverage platform.

"In a year wrought with turbulence, ambiguity and a feeling by many industry experts that the market had gone too far, too fast, a handful of tenacious top performers on our alpha-capture platform refused to surrender and turned in market-beating returns," said Roland Beaulieu, CEO and President of First Coverage. "We're delighted to recognize Stu Desmond and Baird with 2009 Top Performer Awards, and we are equally excited for the portfolio managers who benefited from the ideas submitted via First Coverage by all of our top ranked sell-side firms in 2009."  

First Coverage rankings are derived from more than 100,000 actionable sell-side trade ideas communicated by thousands of sales people at hundreds of firms worldwide that participated on the system in 2009 and represent a completely objective evaluation of the sell-side.  

"Being recognized as a top ranked firm on the First Coverage platform speaks volumes about our ability to put clients' interests first and provide sound recommendations, particularly during challenging market conditions. We are honored to accept this award," said William Mahler, Co-Head of Equity Capital Markets and Director of Institutional Equity Services, at Baird. "

First Coverage's industry leading platform is a web-based solution that simplifies the way that buy-side investment professionals capture, organize and evaluate all types of information coming from their sell-side coverage. The technology allows portfolio managers to easily find and focus on the institutional sales people and information most likely to add value to their investment process.

"I share this great honor with my colleagues, whose support and focus on achieving great outcomes facilitated this success," said Stuart Desmond. "Participating on the First Coverage platform allows us to effectively present ideas and research to Baird clients, while allowing them to objectively measure the value that Baird can contribute to their investment process. First Coverage makes it easier for our ideas to get noticed and portfolio managers to act upon them in a timely manner."

2009 First Coverage Top Performer Rankings

Top 10 U.S. Firms

1. Baird
2. Johnson Rice & Company LLC
3. Deutsche Bank
4. Sanford Bernstein
5. Stephens Inc.
6. JP Morgan
7. Howard Weil
8. RBC Capital Markets
9. Dougherty & Co
10. William Blair and Company

Top 10 International Firms

1. Maison Placements
2. Raymond James
3. Salman Partners
4. Toll Cross
5. TD Securities
6. Dundee Securities
7. M Partners
8. RBC Capital Markets
9. Pareto
10. Canaccord Capital

Top 10 Individual Performers Worldwide

1. Stuart Desmond, Baird
2. John Ing, Maison Placements
3. Jon Rubin and Jim Morris, Deutsche Bank
4. Michael Corelli, Prospera Financial
5. Anita Hawkins, Salman Partners
6. Steve Putzel, JP Morgan
7. James Massie, Toll Cross
8. Nicole Svec, Raymond James
9. Peter Ritter, Sanford Bernstein
10. Charlie Caplinger, Howard Weil

For more information or a complete list of rankings, including best long and short ideas, most consistent performers, and industry top performers, e-mail: [email protected].

In addition to providing a world-class alpha-capture platform, First Coverage offers filtered mainstream news, blogs, research and other communications based on the individual interests of buy-side users. The First Coverage Market Sentiment Index, a proprietary indicator derived from actionable sell-side trade ideas sent by the sell-side to their buy-side clients over the First Coverage platform, is syndicated in Barron's weekly and available live on Bloomberg terminals.

In 2009, data flowing through First Coverage more than doubled, following a year when content grew by more than 400 percent. Last fall, the firm announced its strategic alliance with Integrity Research Associates, LLC, an information and solutions provider specializing in the investment research industry.

About First Coverage Inc.

Established in 2006 by the founders of First Call and StreetEvents, First Coverage provides a web-based technology, which was developed in collaboration with both the buy-side and sell-side to help money managers more efficiently generate alpha by eliminating the "noise" that they encounter on a daily basis, allowing them to focus on the people and information that matter most to their holdings.  The firm's clients comprise large money managers, including Top Ten firms, hedge funds and pension plans, which direct trillions of dollars in assets under management and have access to sentiment analyses of "The Street" and the media as well as the highest-conviction, actionable recommendations submitted to First Coverage by thousands of sell-side participants, who consistently have outperformed the benchmarks.  For more information, visit www.FirstCoverage.com. 

CONTACT: Deborah Jorge, +1-617-303-0067, [email protected]

SOURCE First Coverage Inc.