A new tool promises to empower both public companies and investors. It could also change the capital markets landscape as we know it.
The Investor Scorecard can determine a company’s investment potential, thereby elevating a company’s profile and providing useful information to investors. Introduced by Equicom and produced by Financial Science and Art (FSA), the product is designed to provide impartial evaluation of the investment potential of some 2,500 TSX and TSX-V listed public companies that currently lack analyst coverage.
“The Investor Scorecard fills a significant void for Canadian issuers, providing small- and mid-cap companies that don’t have sell-side research coverage with impartial, fact-based analysis that is widely distributed to the investment community,” said Dave Mason, president, Equicom, a Canadian firm that provides investor relations and strategic corporate communications services. “We chose FSA as our partner in this important initiative based on their ability to produce innovative and easy-to-understand reports.”
The Investor Scorecard provides quantitative analysis incorporating up to 20 years of financial and share price performance using a database of 5,000 companies and propritery research.
The product rates the performance of an issuer using an algorithmically driven five-star system based on issuer data in up to six categories, including valuation, insider ownership and stock market performance. Companies are also ranked against their sector and their 5,000-company database, and internal mesaures such as levels of working capital.
In addition to the ratings, it also contains a host of valuable information incuding a corporate summary, review of operations, market overview, growth strategy and recent highlights, which may help enable investors to make better informed decisions about the investment potential of the company.
“There are more than 2,500 companies in the Canadian markets without research coverage and we believe the Investor Scorecard will provide valuable information to enable investors of all kinds to make better informed decisions about the investment potential of these companies,” said Matt Kacur, president, FSA. “We are confident that many companies will recognize the value of this product to enhance their exposure through this innovative analytical summary.”
It could be a powerful tool if used in conjunction with the investor’s own analysis of a company’s sector, management and growth strategy, and when considered in relation to the client’s own risk sensitivity and the advice of their financial advisor.
(10/14/10)