Wall Street Analysts Are Now Selling More Data, Less Analysis

Wall Street analysts are doing data differently. Banks for years have crunched data on company earnings, price targets and other mundane metrics for clients who might use the information to make investing and trading decisions. Now they are pulling data from social-media sentiment, geospatial mapping and other unorthodox sources. They are also increasingly making their data feeds available directly to clients, without the surrounding research notes that often go unread. The changes are the banks’ latest strategy to try to juice up interest in—and revenue from—their giant research arms that are struggling to stay relevant.