Analysts: They are frightening at times.

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HOW GOOD ARE THE ANALYSTS?

The Analysts Analyzed.

There has been a lot of discussion about the real independence of broker analysts and how good they are. So we looked at an interesting analysis. We went back to late March and checked 100's of analysts recommendations. We only took a buy when the majority of analysts were recommending it. We also only chose stocks that had been covered by more than 5 analysts. We took the price mid-March and the price last Friday to see how well they had done. The results speak for themselves:

ALS ALESCO CORPORATION LIMITED - 27%
AMC AMCOR LIMITED +14%
APN APN NEWS & MEDIA LIMITED -7%
ANZ AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED +5%
AGL AUSTRALIAN GAS LIGHT COMPANY (THE) +2%
AXA AXA ASIA PACIFIC LIMITED -2%
BHP BHP BILLITON LIMITED -2%
BBG BILLABONG INTERNATIONAL LIMITED -18%
BLD BORAL LIMITED -5%
BIL BRAMBLES INDUSTRIES LIMITED -1%
BRL BRL HARDY LIMITED -21%
CCL COCA-COLA AMATIL LIMITED +3%
CML COLES MYER LIMITED -25%
COH COCHLEAR LIMITED -13%
CLH COLLECTION HOUSE LIMITED -13%
CBA COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA +5%
CND CANDLE AUSTRALIA LIMITED -14%
FCL FUTURIS CORPORATION LIMITED -8%
KAZ KAZ COMPUTER SERVICES LIMITED -55%
MAY MAYNE GROUP LIMITED -31%
MRL MILLER'S RETAIL LIMITED -19%
NUF NUFARM LIMITED -5%
SCX SOUTHERN CROSS EXPLORATION NL -18%
TLS TELSTRA CORPORATION LIMITED -15%
QAN QANTAS AIRWAYS LIMITED +8%



The list is not comprehensive but it certainly covers a very wide range of companies. You have to wonder if some of these broker analysts were keen to protect fees and get people buying. On the basis of these results, if you had followed the experts, often paid six figures, and invested $1000 in each company, you would be minus 23% in around 60 days. And remember this was always a number of analysts recommending to buy. Just goes to show you can't believe everything you read.