Research Even when equity markets are efficient, timing is everything. There will always be over-bought and over-sold stocks. Our goal is to find them and identify the catalysts that will trigger corrections to fair value.

We begin within a given industry or end market. Depending on the nature of the industry and the questions we are asking, we will speak with anywhere from 30 to 200 contacts in North America, Latin America, Europe and the Far East. These are largely repeat contacts who over time have proven to be reliable in their opinions and insights. We ask about fundamental business drivers, including pricing, unit volumes, mix, promotional activity, inventories, imports, exports, foreign competition, new product successes, failures, SKU resets, raw materials costs and more.

Next, we map these results within a quantitative framework providing statistical distributions of responses to each question. We arrange these distributions by time and analyze for change. While this quantitative analysis is valuable, we also weigh anecdotal responses from our contacts as we gather market intelligence and search for catalysts.

Our analysts use this insight in a number of ways.

• Valuation - Our analysts assess and report on the relative investment merits of a covered company.
• Survey Reports - A concise version of key findings and related investment implications.
• Company Reports - Comprehensive analysis of findings and drivers.
• Morning Notes -Our latest perspective regarding changes in a covered company's earnings power.

Rating System: BUY (B): Longbow Research expects total return to exceed 20% over a twelve month period. NEUTRAL (N): Longbow Research expects total return to be within a range of plus or minus 20% over a twelve month period. SELL (S): Longbow Research expects total return to be negative by greater than 20% over a twelve month period. Suspended Rating (S): The stock rating has been suspended.