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PRINTER VERSION

ANALYSTS, INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS & OTHER PROFESSIONALS
Finding the Right People

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

The three biggest, competing databases for institutional investor targeting are expensive. They are:

• Bigdough (Investment Data Corporation), now part of IPREO
• Thomson One's "Smart Targets"
• NASDAQ OMX's Shareholder.com

Other, less comprehensive databases are:

• The FactSet Global Ownership Database
• Zacks Investor Relations (ZIRI)
• Vickers Stock Research
• Money Market Directories (S&P, McGraw Hill)
• Judy Diamond
• Precision IR
• Capital IQ
• Nelson's Information, which becamepart of Thomson, is now Lipper Marketplace Sadly, after many changes, it is now probably not the kind of database that investor relations people are looking for.
• Meet The Street (an Instinet Company) This service does not sell you a list. It matches you up with people who should be interested in your stock and arranges a non-deal road show with them.
• Free ERISA at benefitspro.com 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".

• 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 IPREO/Bigdough home page and sign up for their service.
• Step Two. Find your industry group. At many popular investment research sites you can find lists of competitors and other companies in your industry group. Information at some sites, for example at Yahoo Finance, is free and some is available for a low-priced subscription. Two subscription sites are:
  • Wall Street City
  • StockSmart (May have reorganized and this info. may or may not be available.)
• 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. 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. Try the following Websites:
  • Insider-Monitor.com You can look up a company by ticker symbol and see all the inside trades in the last 24 months.
  • NASDAQ
  • StockSmart. You can perhaps still 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.
  • At some other free or inexpensive investor research sites, such as Investools 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.
  • 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. Just because you have an address and phone number for a company this does not mean that the individual you want is reachable or even located there. The company goes to great lengths to shield their institutional investors from the general public. Following are some of the major sources and organizations where you can research the person you want..
  • Morningstar gives you the mutual fund manager's name and a short bio but not his address or phone.
  • InvestoGuide's list of mutual funds gives you addresses, toll-free numbers and a link to the web site.
  • Benefits Link has information on pension fund managers.
  • Try Free ERISA, mentioned above, where you can search all the Form 5500s filed with the government.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • CFA Institute. They maintain a list of local societies.
  • New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA).
  • International Securities Association for Institutional Trade Communication (ISITC)
  • American Benefits Council When we looked, there was a list of member companies but no addresses, phone numbers or contact names.
  • Council of Institutional Investors (CII)
  • Security Traders Assn. (STA)
  • Fidelity Investments has a Multi-national, searchable database of funds.
  • Nat'l. Venture Capital Assn. (NVCA)
  • StarMine.com -- Rates analysts. Organized by industry.

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.)
• IAA, Investment Advisor Association (formerly ICAA)
• FSI (Financial Services Institute)
• NAPFA (National Assoc. of Personal Financial Advisors)
• EMTA (Emerging Markets Traders Assn.)
• FIASI (Fixed Income Analysts Society)
• IBDA (Independent Broker-Dealer Association)
• NIBA (National Investment Banking Association)
• IBF (Institute of Business Finance)
• NAFEP (Nat'l. Assn. of Financial & Estate Planning)
• IARFC (Int'l. Assn. of Registered Financial Consultants)
• SFSP (Society of Financial Service Professionals)
• RFPI (Registered Financial Planners Institute)
• FMA (Financial Management Association)
• NAFC (National Association of Christian Financial Consultants)
• Most Active Underwriters List at Hoover's IPO Central
• AICPA (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants).
• NAAIM (National Association of Active Investment Managers)
• IMCA (Investment Management Consultants Association)
• Stockbrokers.com
• BusinessFinance.com
• Gebbie Press has a comprehensive directory of media addresses.

• The N. A. I. C. (National Assoc. of Investors Corporation)
• A.A.I.I. (American Assoc. of Individual Investors)
• InvestorLinks Club Directory
• CPAteam's Club Directory
• Bivio Investment Club Directory
• Yahoo's Investment Club Directory
• About.com's Club Directory
• the DMOZ Club Directory
• the Google Club Directory
• Women's Finc'l. Network Club Search