Over the last few decades, advancements for women in the business world have been encouraging. However, reaching a gender balance may be a ways off. In the 2021 Global Gender Gap Report released by the World Economic Forum, it was found that a range of factors cause the discrepancy of women in the workforce, including economic opportunities, level education, political power systems, and health. The report concluded that women and men worldwide will reach a balance in roughly 135.6 years. This really gives us something to think about.
The Parity at the Top
The financial sector is yet another male-dominated professional field that has a long way to go before reaching gender parity at the senior level. Despite an equal distribution of women and men entering the financial workforce, the disparity gets wider as roles move up in hierarchy.
However, various studies by reliable research firms have concluded that a higher female representation in Finance can lead to more diversity of thought, more socially conscious investing, sounder investment decisions, better company-client relationships, and better risk management, among other benefits.
If female representation in the financial world is so important, then where are the women at the top rung? The answer is multi-faceted, although one of the most significant reasons is the lack of prominent role models.
Finding one’s way to the top in a male-dominated profession is in itself an daunting task, and a lack of women role models to motivate others and show them a path plays a major role in discouraging women out of their aspirations. This is exactly why successful women in Finance must be given a podium to be seen from.
Moreover, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tells us that women are three times more likely than men to quit the workforce in order to raise children.
The Industry’s Top Women
That’s why this Women’s Day week, we celebrate the women analysts of Wall Street, who have made their way to the top.
We at TipRanks currently follow and rank 7,777 analysts from the U.S., UK, and Canada. Significantly, the average return for the top stocks chosen by these analysts is about 5.7% over the past year. Picking out the top 50 women analysts from the mix gives us a 19.51% 1-year average return. Testing this further, we found that the stock recommendations of our top 10 women analysts have returned an average of 33.46% on investment.
Portia Patel: UK’s Top Analyst
Today, we narrowed our search down to the top analyst in the UK, Portia Patel. Patel is a senior analyst and Director of Equity Research at Canaccord Genuity, covering stocks listed on the UK’s stock exchanges. She was ranked as UK’s top analyst in 2021 by TipRanks, something which she proudly highlights in her professional profile on LinkedIn.
Interestingly, TipRanks held a live stream in honor of International Women’s Day yesterday, giving us a chance to hear from some of the best in the business, including Patel, about what makes the number of women so marginal at the top. “Lots of women are not interested in joining in with that male competitiveness,” she noted. However, she also mentioned that this is exactly what motivated her to be an outlier and outperform her way to the top.
In regard to capital markets and investing in general, these are tumultuous times. With inflation at its highest levels since 1982, escalating geopolitical tensions and fears of stagflation are all rattling investors out of their formerly comfortable positions. Times like these require investment advice from experts who are the best at what they do. In an extended celebration of Women’s Day, we bring forth the favorite picks of the female analysts at top of their game.
Yesterday, we discussed the favorite stock pick of U.S. top analyst Helane Becker, for 2022. Today, we will talk about which stock Portia Patel thinks will bring healthy returns this year.
Patel’s Pick
Most recently, on February 23, the eve of Russian invasion into Ukraine, Patel reiterated a Buy rating on professional services consultancy Begbies Traynor (LSE: BEG).
The company provides professional services like business rescue strategies, advisory, forensic accounting and investigations, corporate finance, personal insolvency solutions, et al. The stock has generated 0.95% returns in the past 12 months. However, the returns have been better over a longer period, with 86.63% over three years and 140.04% in five years, making it a good long-term bet.
The company’s strong financial position makes it a safe investment option. Impressively, Begbies ended the full-year Fiscal 2021 with net cash of £3 million ($3.95 million), after recording net debt of £2.8 million in the previous year.
The company’s consistent dividend-generating capacity keeps investors invested in its stock. For instance, Fiscal 2021 marked the fourth consecutive year of dividend growth.
Recently, the company said that its Property Advisory & Transactional services unit is performing on par with expectations. Nonetheless, some headwinds are expected in the near future. “Although insolvency numbers are inexorably rising, the market is still awaiting a rise in the larger and more complex instructions that may result from the current economic headwinds and the removal of the final Government financial support measures in March,” said Begbies Chairman Ric Traynor.
However, this did not stop Patel from raising her price target to £138 ($1.814), up from $1.63 assigned in December. This indicates a 27.54% upside to the current stock price, as of intraday Wednesday trading 11:52am EST.
Though not a popular stock that is covered extensively by analysts, Begbies has a Moderate Buy consensus rating, based on the 1 Buy rating collected over the past 3 months.
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