MEMPHIS, Tenn. (February 13, 2006) - The Focus List of Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc. ranked first among the recommended stock lists of 12 leading national and regional brokerage firms including Merrill Lynch, A.G. Edwards and Raymond James for the second half of 2005, according to Zacks Investment Research, Inc. In "Picking the Top Stockpickers", an article published today in Barron's, Morgan Keegan's Focus List posted an 11.72% return for the six months ended December 31, 2005, outperforming the other brokerage firms and the Standard & Poor's 500 Composite for the same period. In addition, Morgan Keegan's Focus List performance placed third among this group with a 15.51% return in the one-year ranking.
"Our Focus List benefited from the strong performance of several of our stock picks in the energy and transportation sectors in the second half of 2005," said Elkan Scheidt, chairman of Morgan Keegan's Focus Group and director of the firm's equity strategy group. "Its strength comes from our equity research analysts' in-depth knowledge of the industry sectors and companies, which definitely gives us a competitive edge."
"As we begin 2006, the Focus Group has reduced our exposure to energy after a strong run up, while maintaining our position in the transportation sector," added Scheidt. "We also have increased our weighting in technology."
In 1988, Morgan Keegan created the Focus Group to make the firm's equity research more accessible for the individual investor. The Focus Group includes representatives from equity research, institutional sales, equity strategy and private client group. The Group selects stocks that they believe have the best potential from the firm's coverage universe.
Zacks Investment Research, Inc., an independent research source for Barron's, tracks the stock recommendations of 12 major brokerage firms. The Zacks survey is intended to give investors an indication how their portfolio would perform if investment professionals selected their stocks. Calculations for the survey take into account gains or losses, dividends and theoretical commissions of 1% on each trade. Beginning and end prices used are the official exchange closing prices on the date a focus list change is made. Zacks calculates the time-weighted monthly performance of focus lists on an equal-weighted basis. Monthly returns are then linked geometrically to produce quarterly and annual total return performance figures.
Contact
Gail Rimer
Morgan Keegan & Co., Inc.
901/524-4183
