Good Observation

Why is it necessary for there to be 50 analysts covering Apple or 35 analysts covering Cisco or 29 analysts covering Intel? Is that really worthwhile for every single firm who is paying a guy to listen to these conference calls, be spoonfed a guidance number and then work backwards to arrive at a DCF calculation? How about five guys do the company basics, they're all going to be within a certain range of estimates anyway (they all went to the same colleges and took the same courses), freeing up the other 20 or so analysts to find ways to make that research profitable or actionable to the clients? More analysts should be focused on investing ideas rather than earnings estimate spreadsheet work that everyone else has already done satisfactorily.

As much research as there is, there is definitely a huge untapped market for research that is actually good. (And worth reading, let alone paying for.)