We noted recently that bulge-bracket firm research has lost some market share, as of late. But the news isn't all bad--at least when it comes to scoring sell-side research against buy-side research.

A recent study from Harvard Business School and the University of North Carolina has found that from 1997 to 2004, the stock picks from sell-side firms produced bigger profits than picks by analysts working for money managers, reports Bloomberg. This of course flies in the face of the idea that all the sell-side conflicts interfere with their analysts' ability to serve clients via unbiased research. The study compared 12,000 sell-side analysts' picks with in-house picked funds that "relied exclusively" on internal research and an asset management firm. Perhaps they're all effectively throwing darts. 

For more:
- here's the Bloomberg article