MEMPHIS, Tenn. (March 13, 2007) - The Focus List of Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc., ranked first among the recommended stock lists of 13 leading national and regional brokerage firms with an 83.71% return for the three years ended December 31, 2006, according to Zacks Investment Research, Inc.
In an article published yesterday in Barron's, Zacks reported the 83.71% return posted by Morgan Keegan's Focus List substantially outperformed the other brokerage firms including Smith Barney Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, and Raymond James and the Standard & Poor's 500 Composite for the three year period. In addition, Morgan Keegan’s Focus List performance ranked second among this group with a 24.44% gain in the one year category and placed 12th with a 2.72% return for the last half of 2006.
“Over the last three years, our Focus List benefited from the strong performance of our stock picks in the energy, transportation and financial sectors as well as a healthy mix of small and mid-cap names,” said Elkan Scheidt, chairman of Morgan Keegan’s Focus Group and director of the firm’s equity research department. “Our performance in the second half of 2006 was weakened by maintaining our energy holdings too long and by the poor performance of our transportation picks.”
“The strong long term performance of our Focus List is a result of the quality research of our equity analysts combined with an experienced Focus Group,” added Scheidt.
In 1988, Morgan Keegan created the Focus Group to make the firm's equity research more accessible for the individual investor through the firm’s Focus List of recommended stocks. The Focus Group includes representatives from the firm’s equity research department, equity strategy group, equity institutional sales department and private client group. To create the Focus List, the Group selects stocks that they believe have the best potential from the firm's coverage universe.
Morgan Keegan’s Focus List performance for the five year category was not included in the published survey because the firm did not meet Zacks’ criteria of 1000 financial advisors during this time period. According to Zacks, Morgan Keegan’s Focus List posted a 172.97% gain for the five years ended December 31, 2006 and a 452.71% return for the seven year period.
Zacks Investment Research, Inc., an independent research source for Barron's, tracks the stock recommendations of 13 major brokerage firms. The Zacks survey is intended to give investors an indication of how their portfolio would perform if investment professionals selected their stocks. Calculations for the survey take into account gains or losses, dividends and theoretical commissions of 1% on each trade. Beginning and end prices used are the official exchange closing prices on the date a focus list change is made. Zacks calculates the time-weighted monthly performance of focus lists on an equal-weighted basis.
Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc., one of the largest full-service brokerage and investment banking firms in the nation, is the securities brokerage arm of Regions Financial Corp.(NYSE: RF). Headquartered in Memphis, Tenn., Morgan Keegan has over 400 offices and more than $650 million in equity capital. Additional information about Regions Financial Corp., a member of the S&P 100 Index and one of the nation’s top 10 financial services providers, can be found at www.regions.com.
Contact:
Gail Rimer
Morgan Keegan
901-524-4183
