Wedbush Securities Inc. is a privately held financial services and investment
firm that provides private and institutional brokerage, investment
banking, equity research, fixed income, public finance, correspondent clearing,
and asset management to individual, institutional and issuing clients.
Wedbush Securities was founded in 1955 and is headquartered at 1000 Wilshire
Boulevard, Los Angeles, California. The firm has over 100 offices, over 125
correspondent offices and close to 1,000 employees nationwide.
History The firm was founded in 1955 by two high
school friends, Edward W. Wedbush and Robert Werner, in Los Angeles,
California. They each contributed $5,000 to capitalize their new company, Wedbush
& Company. The company was named after Wedbush because neither partner wanted a
possible business failure named after them and Wedbush lost a coin toss.
Wedbush opened its first office in 1957 located in the Crenshaw district of Los
Angeles. Three years later, Robert Werner decided to sell his interest in
the firm to Ed Wedbush. In 1971, the firm became members of the New York
Stock Exchange, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, and the National
Securities Clearing Corporation. In 1972, the firm began offering
correspondent clearing services, providing trade execution for other
brokerage firms. The firm also added an Investment Banking group in 1975.
Wedbush expanded their trading and research capabilities and added several
retail brokerage offices. In 2000, the firm launched BrokerInsight, a
workstation for order entry, portfolio valuation, and account management and in
2006, the firm became the #1 Liquidity Provider on NASDAQ. In late 2009, the
firm changed its name to Wedbush Securities Inc. from Wedbush Morgan
Securities Inc. On June 13, 2011, Wedbush Securities'
parent company, Wedbush Inc. announced the acquisition of Lime brokerage, a
provider of low-latency, high-throughput trading technologies and high-volume
agency brokerage. Barron's released the research results
conducted by Zacks Investment Research for top stock picking firms. Zack's
scored Wedbush as the number one stock picking firm for three of their four
survey periods. Barron's announced that, "Los Angeles-based Wedbush Securities
surfed to top honors by wide margins over the six, 12 and 36 months ended
Dec. 31, 2011." Corporate divisions
The firm is organized into three main divisions: Capital Markets, Clearing and
Technology, and Private Client Services. = Capital Markets Group =
Wedbush Securities’ Research platform consists of over 25 analysts, coverage
of more than 300 stocks, a consumer channel checking team and Wedbush
Decision Metrics. The Equity Research team provides insights into emerging
investment opportunities within sectors such as consumer products and services,
new media and entertainment, clean technology and industrial growth, and
life sciences. The Wedbush Securities Equity Sales and Trading Group delivers
information flow and investment ideas as well as best execution services to
small, mid and large cap clients. The group covers more than 1,100 U.S. and
European institutions through their Los Angeles, New York, Boston, San
Francisco, Seattle, Dallas and Minneapolis offices and are market
makers in over 700 NASDAQ stocks. The Investment Banking Group provides
clients with financing and advisory services while the Fixed Income Group
provides investment solutions and financing assistance to private client,
institutional, municipal and corporate clients.
= Clearing and Technology Group = The Clearing and Technology Group
provides clearing and prime brokerage services for retail broker dealers,
institutional firms, black box trading firms, professional trading firms, hedge
funds, investment banks, and municipal bond underwriters for a range of
services such as prime brokerage and high-frequency trading.
= Private Client Services Group = The Private Client Services Group
provides brokerage, advisory products, and services to private and
institutional clients, including wealth management, retirement planning,
investment management and financial planing.
Legal disputes In 2011 it was ordered to pay a former
bond trader $3.5 million in withheld compensation for "morally reprehensible"
conduct, and was ordered to pay an investor about $2.9 million after an
arbitration panel decided that a customer's account had been "churned"
and looted by a former Wedbush broker. On October 20, 2011 it was revealed that
Wedbush securities is taking legal action against liquidnet inc for alleged
violation of trade secrets. Recent awards
Barron's ranks Wedbush Securities as the number 1 stock picking firm in 2011
Wall Street Journal’s Best on the Street 2011 ranked Wedbush analysts #3 in
Alternative Energy, Household & Personal Products and #5 in Aerospace & Defense.
In 2010, The Financial Times and Starmine ranked Wedbush analysts #1 top
earnings estimators in Biotechnology and Diversified Consumer Services and #3 in
Communication Equipment. Forbes ranked Wedbush analysts #1 in
Computer Software & Services, #3 in Semiconductors, Apparel and Soap &
Cosmetics in 2010. Wedbush was named Barron’s best Wall
Street Performer for First Half of 2010 and all of 2010.
Wedbush was picked as the Top Stock Picking Firm for the first half of 2009.
References External links
Wedbush Securities official website