Yes, Zachs is probably wrong.

[quote=BigPayDay]

Smart Money “Top Full Service Broker” rankings:



Jones was ranked high in their stock picking according to Smart Money’s recent “Top Full Service Broker” rankings. This info comes from Zachs Investment News Service. Zachs tracks all the major firms “model portfolios”. How do they do it with so few analysts? I thought they only picked big boring blue chips? Havn’t big boring blue chips been out of favor compared to the overseas and small caps recently? If thats the case how did they score so high? Could Zachs be wrong?



Link:

<a href="%3Ca%20href=" http:="" www.smartmoney.com="" brokers="" index.cfm?story=“august2007&hpadref=1</a” target="_blank" target="_blank"> ]http://www.smartmoney.com/brokers/index.cfm?story=august200 7&hpadref=1[/URL][/URL]]]

[/quote]

Not to be overly picky, but the name of the firm is “Zack’s”.

Where are you hanging your shingle these days BPD?  It’s good to see you after far too long.

Thant’s great! How many people do you have in the model portfolio?

Is BPD a regional leader?  He sure sounds like one.  I haven’t seen this much propaganda since little willie was allowed to cut and paste here…

[quote=snaggletooth]Yes, Zachs is probably wrong.[/quote]

I'm almost positive Zack's is wrong.

Just look at the posts on this forum from ex-Jonesers; what they're saying is 100% accurate.

All of these recent--and past--surveys conducted by esteemed publications/companies, etc., that report Jones scoring at or near the top are totally unreliable, inaccurate and not to be trusted!   

It's only 4 stars, not 5.  Jones research is absolutely almost all big boring blue chip companies.  It's called knowing your customers.  Most of our customers don't want a small company they've never heard of to put their life saving into.  They want names they know and trust.  It's easy to put together a list of companies like that.  And you don't have to have 90+ analysts to do it.  We've got some very good analysts and some mediocre analysts.  Just like everywhere else. 

We'll leave getting burned by the latest greates small cap to hit the screens to the rest of the industry.

Hey, Space...was TMA on the EDJ buy list?  I run into it all the time locally and wondered if it was a system-wide recco or just something the local reps were using.

...also wondering what EDJ's stand on it is after the big recent decline (FD...I have a few clients in it with up to mid-20's basis...yikes...)

I should clarify that they were transfer clients…I just made a hold decision…not soliciting any stocks here!

Indy - those were local rep picks.  Jones doesn't have an opinion on TMA.  Seems like every once in a while a stock or a fund company finds some favor with a local guy and the whole region starts using it.  If it's not a well known company, Jones won't follow it.

That's an incredible chart.  And a big part of the reason I don't care for individual stocks.  Good news is that the dividend yield on that stock right now is about 22.5%.   

Sure thing, although at 20%+, it's hard to believe it will be sustainable...someone apparently has doubts or they'd bid it up a lot higher.  My guess is that the dividend will be cut and the company will operate in survival mode until this subprime mess is past.  At least they appear to be one of the better ran mortgage companies...

Again, not soliciting the stock...just see it on a lot of income-oriented local Jones accounts...

Thank for the info, Spiff...

Yeah, except they postponed their recent quarterly dividend. So their

yield based on last quarter’s dividend is exactly zero (until it is

reinstated). In addition, they have paying out a VERY high percentage of

earnings recently in order to maintain their dividend yield. In fact, the

payout has actually exceeded 100% in some quarters (dipping into

reserves to pay dividends).



It is not a default/subprime issue per se. It is a liquidity issue, just like

Countrywide. They can’t do business if they have no buyers of

mortgages.



This is one of the weaknesses of a very focused company (unlike C, BAC,

etc.). A problem in this industry sinks them. I would only hold one of

these as maybe a third or fourth tier financial services holding in a

portfolio.