Northcoast Research

What Northcoast Research does

Northcoast Research is an independent institutional equity research firm founded in 2009 and headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, operating as a FINRA-registered broker dealer and SIPC member through its legal entity Northcoast Research Partners, LLC. The firm sells proprietary fundamental equity research — organized under its Northcoast Market Research (NMR) methodology — directly to institutional investors including hedge funds and asset managers, generating revenue primarily through recurring subscription fees with a secondary transaction-fee stream from sales and trading services (clearing via Pershing LLC). NMR is a bottoms-up fundamental research process that integrates channel checks, surveys, and live conversations with private-company competitors, suppliers, distributors, former executives, and consultants, layered with proprietary financial models to produce buy/sell/hold recommendations and price targets.

The firm covers three core verticals — Business Services, Consumer Products, and Industrial (including Water Infrastructure and Agricultural Equipment) — with additional coverage in restaurants, specialty retail, and consumer leisure. Distribution is handled by a veteran institutional sales force complemented by a proprietary Travel and Events program (management forums, factory tours, conference calls) that provides direct engagement between institutional clients and covered-company management teams. The firm has no external funding, no parent company, and no disclosed M&A activity; it is led by Executive Managing Director and President Marty Rizzo alongside CFO Sal Raffa, Director of Research Kartik Mehta, and Director of Sales Mike Kavanaugh.

Third-party validation of research quality is a central commercial asset: the firm was ranked #9 of 81 firms by INVESTARS/Integrity Research through August 2023 (114.8% Buy return vs. 81.9% for the S&P 500), Top 5 of 100 by INVESTARS through 2021, and Top 3 of 300+ mid-size and boutique brokerage firms by TIM Group for 2017 and 2018. Approximately 50% of its analysts have been recognized by Refinitiv/Thomson Reuters StarMine as Top 3 for sector EPS accuracy or stock picking between 2014 and 2018.

Name

Northcoast Research

Legal name

Northcoast Research Partners, LLC

Website

https://northcoastresearch.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2009

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Northcoast Research is an independent, FINRA-registered institutional equity research firm founded in 2009 in Cleveland, Ohio, selling proprietary fundamental research via subscriptions and sales/trading to hedge funds and asset managers across Business Services, Consumer, and Industrial sectors.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Institutional Equity Research

NAICS

Portfolio Management and Investment Advice (523940), Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities (523)

SIC

Investment Advice (6282), Security Brokers, Dealers & Flotation Companies (6211)

akta.pro primary industry

Equity Research (FSACAGAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Sector-Specific Industry Research (FSACAGAL), Industry & Sector Research (Syndicated/Custom) (BPAHALAE), Strategy & Thematic Research (FSACAGAG)

Keywords

• Institutional equity research
• Fundamental investment research
• Equity research subscriptions
• Broker dealer services
• Investment research firm

Headquarters

HQ city

Cleveland

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Institutional Equity Research Subscriptions: Northcoast Research provides institutional equity research to investment management clients for a subscription fee. The research covers specific industries and companies with actionable investment recommendations.
2. Research Sales and Trading: Sales and trading services where the sales team communicates research highlights to clients and provides best-execution trading services using floor brokers, ECNs, algorithms and FIX protocol.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Northcoast Research sells proprietary fundamental equity research to institutional investors through its Northcoast Market Research (NMR) process, which combines channel checks, surveys, and live conversations with industry contacts to produce actionable buy/sell/hold recommendations across Business Services, Consumer Products, and Industrial sectors. The firm supplements written research with a sales and trading desk that delivers research highlights and best-execution trading services to clients.

Product overview

Northcoast Research is an independent institutional equity research firm founded in 2009, offering a unified research platform built around its proprietary Northcoast Market Research (NMR) process. The core product is the NMR investment research methodology, which generates periodic equity research reports across three main sectors: Business Services, Consumer Products, and Industrial/Water Infrastructure/Agricultural Equipment. The firm provides detailed analysis, timely investment recommendations, and exclusive market intelligence through channel checks, surveys, and industry relationships. The company also organizes Travel and Events services including management briefings, factory tours, and conference calls for institutional clients to engage directly with covered company management teams.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Northcoast Market Research (NMR) Equity Research Subscriptions

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• B. Riley Financial: Diversified financial services firm with a research arm (built around Wunderlich/SMU Capital) covering small/mid-cap industrials and consumer sectors, competing with Northcoast for institutional research budgets.
• Jefferies: Mid-size full-service broker-dealer with a substantial independent equity research franchise covering many of the same sectors (industrial, consumer, business services) that Northcoast covers, but at much broader scale.
• Baird: Employee-owned broker-dealer with a well-regarded equity research platform and institutional sales/trading, comparable in cultural positioning to Northcoast but with substantially broader product and geographic reach.
• Janney Montgomery Scott: Mid-size broker-dealer with a sizeable equity research platform covering many of the same sectors; notably, Janney previously employed several of Northcoast's current analysts.

Direct peers

• Roth Capital Partners: Boutique investment bank and research provider specializing in small- and mid-cap coverage, with an institutional research distribution model directly comparable to Northcoast's.
• Benchmark Company: Boutique equity research and institutional sales/trading firm with a similar mid-cap and small-cap focused research subscription model.
• Boenning & Scattergood: Boutique investment bank and research provider in the Mid-Atlantic; a direct talent competitor, as several Northcoast analysts (e.g., Ryan Connors) previously worked there.
• Sidoti & Company: Boutique research firm focused on small- and mid-cap equity research with institutional subscription model, closely aligned to Northcoast's bottom-up, fundamental research approach.
• Wolfe Research: Independent, employee-owned equity research and trading firm with a similar boutique-institutional business model, sector-focused analyst coverage, and a heavy emphasis on proprietary research processes.

Regional players

• DA Davidson: Employee-owned full-service broker with a regional concentration but national institutional research coverage, overlapping with Northcoast in mid-cap industrial, consumer, and business services coverage.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/northcoast-research

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Northcoast Research