European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 16, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Carol Neves securities analyst Power position on Wall St. By Nav Bartlett associated Pressw Hen Carol Neves was 6 years old an older sister wanted to give her a doll Carriage for Christmas. She preferred an adding machine. I still i member that Little adding Neves says i Haven l thought of in in years bul it was a. Red Metal one Wilh Blue the gift is world pondering these Many years later today Nevis cradles a Telephone in her neck lingers on the computer As she talks on the Telephone to Tho chief executive officer ceo or Chiel financial of Liccar of the 14 enormous conglomerates she tracks. She s punching numbers As she talks. Her questions Are direct. Why is your Stock taking it so much on the Chin she asks one what do you have that would be affected by a recession she asks another. What s the rising Price of Copper going to do to you she inquires of a third. Nevis is a vice president of Merrill Lynch and one of its leading Security analysts issuing the giant brokerage Liurni s opinion on whether to buy or sell Tho stocks she watches Over it s a position of enormous Power lather ratified compensation and As a woman she was almost a Pioneer the Stockli Market crash she says has resulted in fewer Telephone Calls Lor her. She feels the big institutional investors Are still taking a wait and see position. An attractive blonde of 53, Wilm Green eyes and skin so fair it reddens when she laughs hard Carol Neves knew she wanted to be a Slock Market analyst when she was 17 and read a Magazine article proclaiming the Field was opening to women the article was a bit Neves now laughs bul she did it nonetheless. So Well in fact thai instill Vional investor which each year lists the All Star analysts " has named Carol Neves a Winner or runner up every year in the decade Hal they have rated her category Multi Industry this year she was a runner up. But in the Pas she has Boon no 1, no 2. And no. 3. Ii is a lop Honor in this Wall Street world where 1agazine a Phol Caro Nevoa at her Merrill Lynch office. Competition is Tough. There arc about 16.000 Security analysis in the country. 12 percent of them women. After graduation from grimly College in Washington. . She was accepted by Harvard but Back then Harvard Only per milled women a year s taste of the Hasty pudding ii sent her Oul armed with on a a Cef silicate nol the cherished master of business administrate she completed her mba at new York University and began at Merrill More than 30 years ago or $325 a month. It took me 12years to get Lof Ollow my own she recalls a lot longer than it look a Man i had a Tough Boss too we followed 70 stocks. That meant i followed 67 and he followed three. I Don t hold that against Merrill. Ii was the same everywhere. It was t Merrill s Lault i was born Loo her 20th-floor office has a commanding View of the Hudson Rrvel and the now Jersey riverfront. The word processor faces the other Way. When she in t working on ii she s taking hand noles with the compulsively sharpened pencils atop her desk talking on the phone sorting through the growing pile of messages. As a Security analyst Carol is partly the soul of discretion partly a professional gossip partly a Saleswoman a Winner of confidences a predictor of whal a company will earn in the next Quarter and the next year a Sleuth who goes on Sile to sniff the air. She can be a troublemaker whose discouraging word Candum Paslock live or six Points on the new York Stock Exchange. She is courted by corporations grilled by Money managers and tries to keep a Good relationship with companies whether her opinions Are favourable or Una adorable. When she s about to lower or raise an evaluation she Calls the ceo three minutes or so Belore it s to hit the it s a drop. I usually say something like we re about 10 find out it we re us Tair weather friends olten they agree with Neves Sutlon place apartment which she decorated Heiselt. Is worthy of House Beautiful. M has a sweeping living and dining room Wilh a panoramic View of the Easl River. The planes taking Oil silently irom Laguardia Over the twinkling lights of the Bridges she also has a Home in sea Girt. N.j., where she often spends weekend in Tho summer Mon Lis lie commutes from the in Sci Mercedes a senior analyst live Neves earns somewhere Between 1,250.000 to s,3r 0. 00 to salary and Bonus Hul that s nol the whole Story ii she were to introduce company x to company y Ond x wanted to buy a Naves could get a finder s Lee or if one of her companies needed to raise Cash and she persuaded them to use Merrill Lynch s Ivos Lenl banking Thal s really big Money she declined to be More specific but she s hardly talking about pocket Money never married i could l and Havo this Job Neves has a Lull social life playing Tennis twice a week taking vacations in Australia and Hong Kong skiing and cloying two 50 Yard Lino season Lockos to Iho mow York Grants Home games she has a computer at Home where she sometimes works into Ihen evening for a 12 to in hour Day recently she had been looking at Allied signal a company with nearly $10 billion m annual Salon and decided 0 upgrade her assessment companies arc Given a numerical Grade. A. By or d in a generalized rating a Lor an investment Grade Slock b Lor Good Quality c speculative and d High risk she also gives two numerical grades one for Short term prospects. The second for prospects in one to Izreo years. One stands for buy two above average three Neutral and Loui the meanest Neves Ever Gois. Is Betow average. Allied signal had a b-3-2 rating and Neves was thinking of upgrading i hat to a b-2-2. When she called the company to double chock a tact she Learned that Foi Lune Magazine was Aboul to print a negative Arsiclo. Of she said maybe Iii wait until Aller the article comes Oul. Thai might do you More privately she said boo. I be washed an hour analysts need to be credible she would t look Good if a dam article came out As she was upgrading. They also need to be right. One Ihms we can t be is wrong she says. Her knowledge of various businesses and components thereof. Iho Market share the com Elilion seems encyclopedic. Neves has followed More than 400 different companies Over the years and some of them Are now part of the big companies she tracks its. Gull & we slim Lillon industries Tyco Whittaker Excel Hanson Trust Alco Standard Coll Ogden Tel Edyne greyhound and Digeorgio one recent morning Neves arrived at he Ollice before 8 . Logo on Merrill s squawk Box and report on greyhound s doings. This Box goes to Merrill offices All Over the country and each morning eight to 10 analysts pass Tho microphone around the Lable. It s a direct world where people Don t ask Aboul the children and the mels. I Havo to be on a very Friendly basis Wilh All these cos so thai it something happens like the Stock suddenly takes off and there seem to be no reason. I can gel through to the Chiel people immediately she says. I usually Don l know anything about their personal lives. I Don t know if icy re happily married or if they have just remarried. You always have to look Al the company not Tho individual and you have to remember these Guys Are entrepreneurs. They re More than willing to put their Best loot in a typical week Neves says she probably spends one Day writing reports two Days As a Salesman and two Days talking to corporate presidents working on the computer and crunching numbers. She also spends to Days a year on the Road one Day she has a Call irom someone who wants to sell a company that Sells $85 million world of vending machines each year the question is whether Neves might know a buyer she returns another Call and says. I m coming on the fee lunch " thai s a three Day european trip Back and Lorah on the concorde to hear the latest pitches from Hanson Trust. A British based conglomerate a Cincinnati based conglomerate comes a court my ii would like Uell and Neves to particular to track them she goes to Prudential Bache one Day and she s now Neves the Saleswoman Wilh a preset half hour to pitch tier stocks is she right or wrong9 one thing is Lor sure the players want to Cut Neves notes before they commit millions. Wednesday. December 16. 1987 the stars and stripes Page 13
