Wolfe Research Reputation
Hey WSO,
Does anyone have any thoughts about Wolfe Research as a research shop?
Talking with a few people on their teams, it sounds like they're climbing in rankings lately, and are trying to pitch themselves as more independent/reliable than bulge bracket research teams who might face pressure to write favorable reports to keep deals coming in.
Is there any truth to the above, or is Wolfe just a small fish in a big pond that can't really compete at the same level as the BBs? Anyone from within Wolfe have any thoughts on job security, exit ops, etc. compared to a BB? I'm weighing offers from Wolfe and a middling BB, and am worried I'm buying in to Wolfe's hype.
Yes on more independent / reliable. Buy-side values Wolfe's work and actually is willing to pay for their subscriptions. To my knowledge, their senior analyst's compensation is tied to how many institutional investors subscribe to the reports in that sector.
I would say middling BB probably has better job security and compensation, but like you said - a lot of shenanigans (deal pumping, etc.) to deal with at BB. Exit ops come down to the analyst, I just got some sht on my article today about how II ranking helps you get to a pod shop so I guess ranking helps your route to multi-manager / pod. On the long only or more long-term shops, you need to figure out whether your future boss is respected in that community, who does not use the sell-side a lot anyways.
Current Wolfe employee here and your exit opportunities all depend upon the senior analyst you work for. Wolfe is the definition of an "eat what you kill shop" and sales teams directly allocate buyside account revenues to each analyst team based off client interaction numbers and broker votes. Have seen research associates leave to p72, citadel, millenium, balyasny, other fast money pod shops, and competitor sellside firms. Firm is hiring a lot of new senior analysts but at the same time is battling employee turnover. No 401k match and junior pay is roughly 10% below street average. Wolfe spends its money in hiring the best senior analysts away from bb banks and doesn't have a reputation of developing analysts internally. If you are really into equity research its a good place and focus on joining a team with a ranked analyst as that will lead to good exit opps.
This is generally right. But I'd add that I've worked with some Wolfe formers who say they have some pretty sketchy negotiating practices. Have heard some horror stories from juniors who have gotten absolutely screwed over. They do produce some solid research though (this is always gonna be analyst dependent though). I'm also still puzzled as to how they make enough money to cover what must be a very inflated cost base given the seniors they are hiring and the fact that they dont really do any banking...? From the outside it seems like it could be a house of cards...
Can you elaborate on the sketchy recruiting part?
Received an offer from them a couple years ago but turned it down. Very solid senior leadership and differentiated research that has helped them grown tremendously. They are also known to poach top ER analysts from top BB ER divisions. However, comp is below street and hours are long. Exit opps are definitely solid into HFs and LO AM.
i read their research and its great so I guess there is something there!
So when you reach out to a Wolfe analyst it gets put in their crm and then sales will annoy your traders / pms to do a trade - their execution is blahhh - I believe they have some sort of deal with nomura but not totally sure
Thumbs up to Wolfe Research. Good research. However, note that almost no one truly climbs the rankings. So don't kid yourself there, but is it a good research shop where you will do quality work. Absolutely.
Wolfe's incentive structure makes 2000% more sense than bank research: if you tie comp to subscription revenue the Analyst can bring, of course they GAF and put out real research, instead of puff pieces.
Sounds pretty cool. Thanks for sharing. Very rare to find a shop that lets you tell the truth. That in of itself is a reason to sign up.
This is a bit generous… there are also still a good number of analysts at Wolfe that put out regurgitated press releases. They’ve hired a few top II analysts in the last 6-12 months that are known for being banking/corp access shills.
Funny you say this given your disdain of channel checks/quarterly trading/commission models, though? The Wolfe structure heavily incentivizes weekly/monthly channel check type work because each time you put out one of those notes is a batch of views + calls.
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