Institutional Investor's Alpha Magazine - December 2008 / January 2009 - (Page 49)

Research Center Top Analysts Foresight Independence is prized as investors reward prescient analysts in this year’s annual ranking of the best. The Value in By Paul Sweeney E quity analyst Ivy Zelman has a reputation for don’t make sense, and she warned that the party will end,” being as hard-eyed as she is hardworking. So recalls Bradley Berning, a Minneapolis-based executive direcmuch so that management at companies like tor of hedge fund ﬁrm FrontPoint Partners. “Now a lot of Fort Worth–based homebuilder D.R. Hor- people are saying, ‘Wow, we should have listened to her.’” David Snyder, an investment analyst at New York– ton, on the receiving end of her candid research reports, based hedge fund Maverick Capital, agrees. have stopped talking to her. D.R. Horton, “Ivy understands and anticipates trends before whose stock was trading at $6.87 a share at everyone else does and before they become evithe end of November, more than half off its 52-week high of $17.95 in April, has also dent,” he says. “You make more money anticibarred Zelman from participating in its quarpating events than reacting to them.” RESEARCH terly conference calls (the company represenZelman for a third consecutive year is ANALYSTS tatives declined to comment). So unvarnished No. 1 in the Homebuilders & Building Prodare her reports that some homebuilders have ucts sector in Alpha’s annual ranking of the nicknamed her “Poison Ivy.” top U.S. equity research analysts. She is one But she wears the criticism like a badge of honor. “I’ve of two independent analysts this year to claim the No. 1 got thick skin,” says Zelman, who spent 15 years as a Wall spot in their sectors. The other, Edward Wolfe, has been a Street analyst before leaving Credit Suisse in 2007 to found ﬁrst-teamer for six straight years for his coverage of the Airfreight & Surface Transportation sector. In April he formed Zelman & Associates in Cleveland. Hedge fund investors say they appreciate Zelman’s in- his own operation, Wolfe Research, after his employer, dependence. “Back in 2004 and 2005, homebuilders were Bear, Stearns & Co., was absorbed into JPMorgan Securigoing gangbusters, but Ivy was saying that these mortgages ties as a result of the shotgun marriage between parents ★ TOP U.S. EQUITY ON THE WEB Visit www.alphamagazine.com for additional information on hedge fund managers’ most-valued analysts, as well as a list of equity research attributes hedge funds prize most and an index of hedge funds’ favorite researchers. Also available: an explanation of how we compiled the list. DECEMBER 2008/JANUARY 2009 • INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR’S ALPHA • 49 http://www.alphamagazine.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Institutional Investor's Alpha Magazine - December 2008

Institutional Investor's Alpha Magazine - December 2008 Contents Letter from the Editor Longs & Shorts Inside the Trade Pension Corner The Good Guys Interview: Stanley Fink Cover Story: The New Regulatory Reality United States: The Usual Suspects Europe: Flirting with Unity Asia-Pacific: What Asian Contagion? In Theory In Focus Strategies Research Center Alpha Bytes Unhedged Commentary

Institutional Investor's Alpha Magazine - December 2008

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