Back to top
Zacks In The News
For Immediate Release Media Contact
Zacks Ranks Brokerage Portfolios for First Half of 2011
Chicago, IL- August 11, 2011- The first six months of this year were interesting. Despite the market and investor concerns about the U.S. economic recovery, the global economy and others, the S&P 500 actually posted a total return of 6.02%. It was interesting in yet another way as well. In the first half of this year, ended June 30th, of the brokerage model portfolios ranked by Zacks Independent Research, those that outperformed the S&P 500 as well as those that did not were heavily concentrated in the same sectors of Technology and Finance.
What was the difference, then, for those that outperformed you ask? “Those that outperformed had a heavier weighting in the retail sector which put them over the top,” says Tracey Ryniec, Equity Strategist at Zacks.com, the research provider’s online unit. “Retail, including the high end like Tiffany’s but also the value retailers, like Dollar Tree, performed well in the first six months of the year. Included in the retail sector are also many of the restaurant chains, some of which have been high fliers like Red Robin Gourmet Burger and Chipotle. Making a bet on the strength of the consumer paid off.”
The leading brokerage firms employ analysts who produce recommendations for hundreds of stocks, which can not all be bought for a client portfolio. These brokerage firms then create model portfolios from all of the stocks each firm is following. The process to create these lists range from a top down quantitative methodology, to a bottom up fundamental process.
Twice yearly, Zacks Investment Research ranks the performance of the model portfolios of some of the street’s top brokerages as well as those with a little less name recognition. The model portfolios in the Zacks survey include U.S. traded equities including ADRs. Zacks has just released these rankings for the first half of 2011. Of the Top Ten, half outperformed the S&P 500.
Taking the top spot in the first half rankings is Charles Schwab, with a 9.82% total return. Second place goes to McAdams Wright with a 9.08% total return and third is Morgan Stanley Smith Barney with 6.80%. All three of those firms made the Top 5 in the One Year ranking. McAdams Wright and Charles Schwab made the Top 5 for the Three Year period as well.
The top 10 ranked brokerages for first half 2011 (12-31-10 to 6-30-11) are as follows…
Rank |
Brokerage Firm |
Total Return |
Excess Return vs. S&P 500 |
1. |
Charles Schwab |
9.82% |
3.79% |
2. |
McAdams Wright |
9.08% |
3.06% |
3. |
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney |
6.80% |
0.78% |
4. |
Goldman Sachs |
6.69% |
0.66% |
5. |
Bank of America_Merrill Lynch |
6.17% |
0.14% |
6. |
Edward Jones |
5.89% |
-0.13% |
7. |
Wedbush Securities |
3.83% |
-2.19% |
8. |
Morgan Keegan |
3.75% |
-2.27% |
9. |
Wells Fargo |
0.68% |
-5.34% |
10. |
New Constructs |
-0.46% |
-6.48% |