Analyst's Role
Analysts look at the growth prospects, management, and industry structure to try and identify the gap between consensus forecasts and the Harbour analyst's expectations.
The investment process is dependent upon Harbour analysts providing bottom-up fundamental research that seeks to place growth signals, revealed by their analysis, in a valuation context. Following extensive sector and company research, each analyst then sets a rating for each of their stocks. This conviction is a primary input into the ranking process for all stocks. Discussion around the rating with the portfolio manager informs subsequent portfolio construction.
Knowledge of each industry is an essential part of appreciating the relative valuation of individual companies. Our analysts actively engage with company management, competitors, suppliers and customers on a regular basis to provide a further layer of insight. Analysts also test the impact of macro-economic trends on the companies that they follow using leading indicators and long term relationships.
The objective for each analyst is to provide research focusing on the dynamics, or changing factors that the market may be slow to interpret or understand. These fresh ideas can be meaningfully tested and discussed in a disciplined manner, and in the context of a stock's quantitative, macro-economic and fundamental ranking.
In the end, the best ideas are those where we find a gap between the Harbour analyst's views and those of the market. These opportunities are amplified when they coincide with a significant valuation anomaly. This approach enables Harbour to exploit underappreciated growth opportunities and to avoid stocks that are over appreciated and fully priced.