Investor Relations -- Approaching Analysts, Institutional Investors and Other Professionals

APPROACHING ANALYSTS, INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS & OTHER PROFESSIONALS

Pay For a Written Report?

The big news these days is how the nature of research is changing since the SEC instituted new regulations to, hopefully, keep research unbiased. There are a growing number of independent research firms with reports for sale to investors and with reports paid for by the subject company. NASDAQ has announced the organization of the Independent Research Network (IRN), a joint venture between themselves and Reuters, to help fill the gap. Not to be outdone, the New York Stock Exchange is exploring the possibility of offering something similar. Or they may form an alliance with the new National Research Exchange, a similar venture matching up small and medium sized companies with researchers who, probably for a fee, will cover them.

These are not the first such efforts to expedite ethical pay-for-research reports. Investorside Research Assn. is a non-profit trade association of investment research providers that do not engage in investment banking, company consulting or research-for-hire. Their members constitute the leading investment research firms in the world, providing research that works purely for investors. A similar organization is First Research Consortium, an association of standards-based research providers to promulgate and publicize the "Standards for Independent Research Providers" to be used by investors in considering the credibility of a published or publicized research report, and by public companies in considering enrollment in a credible, professional program providing analyst coverage. Yet another group you may wish to look at is the Shareholders Research Alliance, an organization of non-controlling shareholders in public companies who have formed in alliance with professional Independent Research Providers governed by the aforementioned "Standards For Independent Research Providers".

Let Professionals Know About Your Company! -- Buying Lists of Portfolio Managers and Security Analysts for a Relatively Low Price.

Institutions include banks, mutual funds, pension funds, hedge funds, insurance companies, or any organization that manages a large principal amount of capital professionally.

Bigdough (Investment Data Corporation) -- For many years IDC has published directories of institutional managers, including their popular "Institutional Investors in Small Cap Stocks". Their huge database is now available online through their sister company, Bigdough. Recently the demand for the on-line service hs squeezed out the more traditional paper versions, since they offer a wide variety of effective search criteria to find those people who might be interested in your company.
LionShares -- For free you can search for the top 15 institutional investors and the top 15 mutual funds holding your stock. They will also sell you more detailed information.
Nelson's Information (now part of Thomson) They have published their paper "Directory of Investment Managers" and "Directory of Investment Research" for a long time and are now selling online subscriptions to their data.
Zacks Investor Relations (ZIRI) What Bigdough is to institutional investors, Zacks is to security analysts. Prices vary with the situation.
Vickers Stock Research Another long-time source of institutional information. Today you can access their database online with subscriptions priced from around $20.00 per month through about $300 per month, depending on the extent and type of information you are looking for.
Money Market Directories (S&P, McGraw Hill) They have a number of directories on paper and can provide custom electronic searches on disk or CD-ROM.
Judy Diamond This publisher sells a number of directories, including "Directory of Self-Funded Group Plans", "Directory of Retirement Plan Administrators", etc. Has a CD ROM called "The King of Pension Funds"
Precision IR Has database of holders, targets, and institutional contacts. Don't know the cost.
Free ERISA This is a free (yes, FREE) website where you can search all (yes ALL) the Form 5500's filed with the government to find institutional investors who may be interested in your company. This looks like a lot of legwork; however you can't get much better than "free".

How To Put Together Your Own List of Institutional Investors.

Step One. Read this first.
- How to Define Your Peer Group. Great article written by IDC (mentioned above). After reading the article, either follow the steps below or, if you don't have the time, go to the IDC/Bigdough home page and sign up for their service.
Step Two. Find your industry group. At many popular investment research sites you can find the other companies in your industry group. Some information is free and some is available for a low-priced subscription. Three such sites are listed below.
- Wall Street City
- Wall Street Research Net
- StockSmart Here you can find a smaller, more specialized peer group than the industry group at WallStreetCity or WSRN.
Step Three. Find the institutional investors who like your peer group. This requires some searching; however many free and low-cost investment research sites report on "insider trading", which will help you compile your list. Some "insiders" are simply company officers or directors or individuals who own a lot of stock; however some will be institutional investors. For example, try the following:
- MarketGuide. When you search on a stock symbol you get a menu with, among other things, an option to view "Instit. Ownership". This will give you just the top 5, if there are more than that..
- StockSmart again. You can find the top 10 mutual funds (if any) and the top 10 institutional managers (if any) who own a company. You may not find many investing in very small companies.
- Mutual Fund Discoverygives some portfolio manager data and phone numbers for some of the mutual funds covered. Look for "Fund Details" from the "FundsInView" part of the site. The portfolio manager information comes from the Lipper Fund Club where you can search for funds and download prospectuses. The prospectus may have not only portfolio managers names but background information,too.
- At some other free or inexpensive investor research sites, such as Wall Street City you can find stories and information on who owns or is buying or selling various companies. However, they don't give you a list in an organized manner.
- At free and inexpensive sites, if you see a list of insiders look for "beneficial owners" -- people who own 10% or more of the companies. These are sometimes institutions. For inside trades try Insider Trader..
- Fast Check. If you subscribe (for $200 per month) you can find the top 25 mutual funds and top 10 private funds that have a position in a company and you can find the importance of that holding in the overall portfolio. You can also find the other companies that these people have major positions in.
- StarMine is a website which rates analysts and gives information on them. Look for the top-rated analysts covering your industry.
Step Four. Find the contact names and addresses for the mutual funds and institutions you want to contact. This may be the most difficult part of the processes -- especially finding the name of the fund manager. Following are some of the major sources and organizations where you may be lucky enough to find the name of the person you want or find someone who will give it to you.
- Try Free ERISA, mentioned above, where you can search all the Form 5500s filed with the government.
- Mutual Fund Magazine and its database Here you can find the addresses and phone numbers of the mutual funds you want to contact.
- Pensions and Investments Magazine and its database Here you can find the name of the mutual fund managers (but not phone and address in the same directory). There is also a Money Manager database with addresses and name of Chief Investment Officer.
- Investorama's list of funds with toll-free numbers and (often) a link to the web site.
- Mutual Fund Discovery (which is free, and is mentioned,above) gives some portfolio manager data and phone numbers for some of the mutual funds covered. Look for "Fund Details" from the "FundsInView" part of the site. They also link you to Lipper Fund Club where you search for funds and download prospectuses. The prospectuses list managers and give background.
- Investment Company Institute This organization of mutual funds has an online directory viewable with Adobe Acrobat. In addition to addresses and phone numbers, the directory links to company websites.
- Hedge Fund Assn. (HFA)
- Investorside Research Association . An association of investment research providers that do not engage in investment banking, company consulting or research-for-hire. They have a list of members. You can type in a stock symbol to see which members have research available for it.
- Research Connect. Allied with InvestorSide, this website offers research aimed at investors but also broader research in a number of industries and fields.
- Association for Investment Management and Research (AIMR). They maintain a list of local societies.
- New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA). They maintain a list of other societies.
- Securities Industry Assn. (SIA)
- Int'l. Securities Assn. for Institutional Trade Communication - Int'l. Operations Assn. (ISIT-IOA)
- Assn. of Private Pension & Welfare Plans (APPWP) When we looked, there was a list of member companies but no addresses, phone numbers or contact names.
- Council of Institutional Investors (CII) Here too, there was a list of member companies but no addresses, phone numbers or contact names.
- Benefits Link has email list of pension fund managers.
- Security Traders Assn. (STA)
- Brill's Links to Funds On-Line
- Numen-Lumen has free, large searchable database of mutual funds.
- Fidelity Investments has a Multi-national, searchable database of funds.
- Nat'l. Venture Capital Assn. (NVCA)
- StarMine.com -- Rates analysts. Organized by industry. Gives you their names and companies, but not addresses.
- More sources of possible information are listed under "Target traders and financial planners", below.

Target Brokers, Traders and Financial Planners. (Obviously, these people and people in Step Five, above, overlap.) Often, directories are available only to members; however it doesn't hurt to ask.

FPA (Financial Planning Assn.) (Int'l. Assoc. for Financial Planning). In 1999 the IAFP (Int'l.Assoc.for Financial Planning) merged with the ICFP (Institute of Certified Financial Planners) to form the FPA. They have a Planner Search. In Canada visit Financial Planners Standards Council.
IAA, Investment Advisor Association (formerly ICAA) -- every member firm of the Association is registered as an �investment adviser� under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.
FSI (Financial Services Institute), voice of the independent contractor broker-dealer.
NAPFA (National Assoc. of Personal Financial Advisors) Assoc. of fee-based financial planners.
EMTA (Emerging Markets Traders Assn.)
FIASI (Fixed Income Analysts Society)
ETA (Electronic Traders Assn.)
IBDA (Independent Broker-Dealer Association)
NIBA (National Investment Banking Association)
ICFS (Certified Fund Specialists)
NAFEP (Nat'l. Assn. of Financial & Estate Planning)
IARFC (Int'l. Assn. of Registered Financial Consultants)
SFSP (Society of Financial Service Professionals). Has directory of chapters and a financial professional search may now be active.
RFPI (Registered Financial Planners Institute)
FMA (Financial Management Association)
NAFC (National Association of Christian Financial Consultants
COBI (Coalition of Black Investors) Has directory of professionals.
Most Active Underwriters List at Hoover's IPO Central
Look for market makers at BusinessFinance.com
Look for contacts of various types at Portfolio Corner
AICPA (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants). The Personal Financial Planning (PFP) division has about 7,000 members.
CPA-PFS PFS is a financial accreditation for CPAs. This site has a PFS search section.
SAAFTI (Society of Asset Allocators and Fund Timers, Inc.) This site has a member search section.
ICIMC (Institute for Certified Investment Management Consultants) This site has a local area search section.
IMCA (Investment Management Consultants Association)
CPA Finder This website has a search via which you can look for those CPA's who engage in investment advice, pension & retirement and other pertinent services.
Gay Financial Network This website has a search via which you can look for financial planners and other financial professionals.
Stockbrokers.com This website has a search via which you can look for stock brokers, brokerage firms, investment advisors, and financial planners.
Advisors Directory A state by state listing of financial advisors (also legal, tax, and insurance, if you want them). You can also search by sub-category.

Target Investment Clubs and Organizations.