Research Firm: Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Investment Research is a Chicago-based research and money management firm founded in 1978 to provide institutional investors with quantitative models designed to predict stock prices for US companies. The product line has expanded over the years to provide a wide range of investment-related information services and software tools to individual investors.

Methodology

Zacks Stock Rating System: Zacks offers two rating systems that take into account investors' holding horizons: Zacks Rank and Zacks Recommendation. Each provides valuable insights into the future profitability of the stock and can be used separately or in combination with each other depending on your investment style.

The Zacks Recommendation aims to predict performance over the next 6 to 12 months. The foundation for the quantitatively determined Zacks Recommendation is trends in the company's estimate revisions and earnings outlook. The Zacks Recommendation is broken down into 3 Levels; Outperform, Neutral and Underperform. Unlike many Wall Street firms, we have an excellent balance between the number of Outperform and Neutral recommendations. Our team of 70 analysts are fully versed in the benefits of earnings estimate revisions and how that is harnessed through the Zacks quantitative rating system. But we have given our analysts the ability to override the Zacks Recommendation for the 1200 stocks that they follow. The reason for the analyst over-rides is that there are often factors such as valuation, industry conditions and management effectiveness that a trained investment professional can spot better than a quantitative model.

The Zacks Rank is our short-term rating system that is most effective over the one- to three-month holding horizon. The underlying driver for the quantitatively-determined Zacks Rank is the same as the Zacks Recommendation, and reflects trends in earnings estimate revisions.

The Zacks Style Score is as a complementary indicator to the Zacks rating system, giving investors a way to focus on the highest rated stocks that best fit their own stock picking preferences.

Academic research has proven that stocks with the best Value, Growth and Momentum characteristics outperform the market. The Zacks Style Scores rate stocks on each of these individual styles and assigns a rating of A, B, C, D and F. We also produce the VGM Score (V for Value, G for Growth and M for Momentum), which combines the weighted average of the individual Style Scores into one score. This is perfectly suited for those who want their stocks to have the best scores across the board.

Coverage

A staff of 70 analysts provide continuous coverage for a universe of approximately 1,200 US and Canadian traded stocks and NYSE traded ADRs. The universe includes the S&P 500 and approximately 700 of the next largest market cap and widely held stocks. Analysts are organized by industry, which gives them keen insight to developments that affect company profits and stock performance. An additional 3,000 stocks are covered by Zacks Rating System and generate model-driven snapshot research reports.

What's Provided on Fidelity.com

• Analyst Reports contain the Zacks Recommendation of Outperform, Neutral of Underperform and the Zacks Rank of either a Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell or Strong Sell, as well as their in-depth written description on the company. These reports can range from 7 to 10 pages on the individual stock. The Analyst Written Reports will have a Target Price, a valuation section, and all reports have Style Scores.
• Model Portfolio: The Zacks Investment Committee has maintained a model portfolio since 1996. This portfolio, called the Zacks Focus List, is designed for long-term investors. We start with a universe of 3,000+ stocks. Zacks Director of Research Sheraz Mian then personally selects 50 of Zacks' best long-term recommendations most likely to outperform the market over the next 12 months. Each stock is hand-picked from our list of stocks with the highest Zacks Rank. The Focus List is a Large Cap Blend strategy with low annual turnover of approximately 20 percent of the holdings. It is published weekly and lists any additions or deletions to the portfolio from the previous week.
• Economic Outlook: Macro-economic outlook produced monthly by Zacks Chief Equity Strategist John Blank PhD.
• Market Strategy: Zacks Chief Equity Strategist, John Blank PhD., publishes this monthly report that provides the Zacks forecasts for all major asset classes and the details of Zacks outlook. This report is derived from a number of resources to come up with the individual asset class forecasts, including (a) the Zacks proprietary models; (b) input from the Zacks investment committee comprised of, John Blank, Ben and Mitch Zacks, senior portfolio managers at Zacks Investment Management, Sheraz Mian, the Director of Research, and the full team of stock strategists at Zacks.com; (c) reviewing material produced by Zacks consulting economists at Macroeconomic Advisors, Consensus Economics, and San Francisco Fed "Fed Views" (d) carrying out a Zacks survey of sell-side investment strategists and buy-side chief investment officers (CIO). All this information is then integrated to arrive at these Zacks Forecasts Analyst Interview: Daily commentary with Q&A from senior research analysts about their industry sectors covering current events and outlook.
• Analyst Interview: Daily commentary with Q&A from senior research analysts about their industry sectors covering current events and outlook.
• Industry Rank Analysis: Ongoing commentary from senior research analysts about their industry with highlights of leaders and industry trends.
• Predefined stock search strategies for several investment strategies.

See Research Reports for links to current reports. You can also search for stock reports.