Wall Street research analysts have lots of ways to communicate their opinions to investor clients. They can say that a stock is a buy, or a sell. They can be overweight, or underweight. They can be above consensus, or below. They can be neutral, or have a hold rating. But what are those opinions based on?
Visible Alpha, a Wall Street startup backed by banks including UBS and Morgan Stanley, is set up to help investors understand exactly that. Now, the firm is acquiring ONEaccess, another startup that helps firms find corporate access events and track their consumption of research. Visible Alpha aims to standardize the analyst models and forecast data that underpin those analyst recommendations like buy, sell, or hold. In effect, it allows analysts to show their work, and for investors to see it and compare it.
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