CAS Fellow Named Top Equities AnalystInstitutional Investor has named CAS Fellow Todd Bault the top equities analyst in the non-life insurance sector for 2004. Bault moved up to the top spot after earning third team honors in 2003.
Institutional Investor's 33rd annual All-America Research Team, unveiled in the October 2004 issue, is based on responses from almost 3,500 portfolio managers and buy-side analysts from nearly 700 institutions who were asked to identify the brokerage firm analysts whose work they found most valuable over the preceding 12 months. The 2004 All-America team includes 334 individual analysts from 18 brokerage firms who specialize in 71 industries or macro research disciplines. Institutional Investor is a monthly magazine that has been providing financial information to institutional investors for 38 years.
Of Bault, Institutional Investor notes that the Sanford C. Bernstein analyst's 12 years of experience as an insurance actuary "gives him a particular ability to assess risk, analyze company reserves and profitability, and provide rigorous quantitative valuations." Bault agrees, stating that "my actuarial background is front and center in the research—it's Bernstein's edge."
The magazine goes on to note that Bault's "bullish thesis that profits were on the rise after four years of rising prices proved correct. In the year through mid-September, the sector was up 14 percent versus 10 percent for the S&P 500 index."
"This is another example that actuarial skills have valuable applications beyond straight pricing and reserving," Bault said. "I hope that members of the CAS continue to make the most of the opportunities to extend our actuarial skills into nontraditional areas."
