Morgan Keegan's Focus List Tops Zacks’ Rankings Again

For the fifth consecutive time, the Focus List of Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc., had the highest five-year returns among the recommended stock lists of 12 leading national and regional brokerage firms with a 33.45% return for the five years ended December 31, 2010, according to Zacks Investment Research, Inc. Zacks ranks the recommended stock lists of the nation’s leading brokerages every six months, and Morgan Keegan’s Focus List of recommended stocks has been ranked #1 in the five-year category since late 2008.

In an article published January 29, 2011, in Barron's titled “Market Beaters,” Zacks reported the 33.45% return posted by Morgan Keegan's Focus List substantially outperformed the recommended lists of Goldman Sachs, Edward Jones, Raymond James and Wells Fargo, as well as the Standard & Poor's 500 Composite’s 2.29% gain for the five-year period.

In addition, Morgan Keegan ranked second in the three-year category with a 12.77% return versus a -2.86% loss for the S&P 500. The firm’s 19.95% gain in the one-year category ranked fifth among the brokerages and compared to a 15.06% gain for the S&P 500. Morgan Keegan’s Focus List performance ranked seventh with a 24.72% for the second half of 2010, compared to a 23.27% return for the S&P 500. According to Zacks Investment Research, Morgan Keegan’s Focus List posted a 97.01% return since Zacks began tracking Morgan Keegan’s Focus List performance at the beginning of 2004.

“Our Focus List’s performance over the last five years benefited from the consistency of our approach, which has not changed since our Focus List was first created in 1988,” said Elkan Scheidt, chairman of Morgan Keegan’s Focus Group and director of the firm’s equity research department. “Morgan Keegan’s Focus Group puts in a tremendous amount of time and effort to identify those sectors and stocks that make up our Focus List. Our ongoing success exemplifies the quality of our equity research analysts and their dedication to the long-term investment needs of our clients.”

In 1988, Morgan Keegan created the Focus Group to make the firm's equity research more accessible for the individual investor through the firm’s Focus List of recommended stocks. The Focus Group includes representatives from the firm’s equity research department, equity strategy group, equity institutional sales department and private client group. To create the Focus List, the Group selects stocks that they believe have the best potential from the firm's coverage universe.

About Zacks Investment Research, Inc.

Zacks Investment Research, Inc., an independent research source for Barron's, tracks the stock recommendations of 12 major brokerage firms. The Zacks survey is intended to give investors an indication of how their portfolio would perform if investment professionals selected their stocks. Calculations for the survey take into account gains or losses, dividends and theoretical commissions of 1% on each trade. If a Barron’s survey participant informs Zacks of a change to the focus list before 12:00 noon CT, the change is effective on the same day, otherwise it is accounted for on the next day. The prices used are the official exchange closing prices. Monthly returns are then linked geometrically to produce quarterly and annual total return performance figures. Zacks calculates the time-weighted monthly performance of focus lists on an equal-weighted basis.

About Morgan Keegan & Company Inc.

Morgan Keegan & Company Inc., one of the nation’s largest regional full-service brokerage and investment banking firms, is the securities brokerage arm of Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE: RF). Headquartered in Memphis, Tenn., Morgan Keegan serves individual and institutional investors in over 300 offices in 19 states. Additional information about Morgan Keegan can be found here.

About Regions

Regions Financial Corporation, with $132 billion in assets, is a member of the S&P 100 Index and one of the nation's largest full-service providers of consumer and commercial banking, trust, securities brokerage, mortgage and insurance products and services. Regions serves customers in 16 states across the South, Midwest and Texas, and through its subsidiary, Regions Bank, operates approximately 1,800 banking offices and 2,200 ATMs. Additional information about Regions and its full line of products and services can be found here.

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