What is Equity Research?
Equity research is developed and provided by the sell-side firms to help the investors understand the companies they are investing in and the hedge fund employees to make investment decisions. These are generally done by ex executives, market veterans etc., as they require in-depth research and deep subject experts.
But there are some companies like Morgan Stanley and bank of America that hire hundreds and thousands of employees to analyze the market and develop public company reports.
It is generally the detailed coverage of a particular company, their growth in the past years, their investments in other companies, their competitors, services they are bringing into the market etc. All of these are evaluated to conduct strategic business plans, mergers and acquisitions, and to make marketing decisions.
The research includes the company reports, initiation reports, industry reports, commodities reports, flash reports.