Part 6/8:
The core of the discussion revolves around how drastic salary reductions and staffing cuts have affected the equity research industry. With equity analysts’ ranks dropping from approximately 4,600 a decade ago to about 3,000 today, there’s a distinct contrast in spending on research versus its perceived value. Changes in regulations, particularly in Europe, have only served to exacerbate these dynamics, making it incredibly difficult for firms to provide the levels of in-depth analysis that were once commonplace, thus diminishing the quality of insights available to investors.