Merrill woos hedge funds with new 'falling shares' target.
Analysts at investment bank Merrill Lynch are to extend their coverage
of companies which are set to underperform across the next year, the
Times re****ts.
Equities specialists at the firm are to increase the number of
companies they cover whose shares are predicted to fall from 12 per
cent of the total to 20 per cent.
This change was contained in a company-wide order - which, it is
thought, will help to attract clients who prefer to "short" the firms
they invest in.
Many hedge funds are attracted to this form of investing, in which a
profit is made if the share value falls below the price at which it
agreed to sell.
Commenting on the move, president of global research at Merrill
Candace Browning said:
"We are introducing a new equity rating system on June 2nd - a
framework explicitly intended to provide clients with enhanced
transparency into analysts' views, greater differentiation among the
equity ratings within a sector and closer alignment between rating
distributions and historical stock performance."
