Zacks Intelligence

The Zacks Rank is a proprietary quantitative rating that sorts roughly 4,400 US-listed stocks into five groups based on four factors related to earnings estimates. The primary driver is systematic change in the Zacks Consensus Estimate—aggregated from sell-side analysts—with positive revisions pushing stocks toward a #1 (Strong Buy). The model is rooted in Len Zacks' MIT research showing that companies beating earnings estimates tend to outperform the market over short-term horizons.

Zacks does both. The research arm distributes ratings, reports, and screeners to individual and professional subscribers. Zacks Investment Management, a separate registered investment advisor, runs a family of mutual funds and ETFs that execute strategies built on the same earnings-revision methodology. This dual structure means the firm is simultaneously a data vendor and an asset manager.

Zacks normalizes and aggregates real-time earnings estimate revisions from hundreds of brokerage analysts who contribute data. This is distinct from non-consensus models that generate proprietary estimates internally. The firm licenses this cleaned consensus database to institutional clients, who use it for their own quantitative research, screening, and model building.

Zacks remains a family-led operation. Founder Leonard Zacks is still closely associated with the firm. His sons Mitch Zacks and Ben Zacks serve as portfolio managers within the Zacks Investment Management division, overseeing the quantitative strategies that allocate capital based on the firm's research signals.

No. Zacks publicly stated in January 2024 that it does not operate retail trading groups on social media platforms, nor does it solicit individual investors through messaging apps. Scammers have widely misappropriated the Zacks brand to lure victims into fraudulent trading schemes.