LBriscoe

I understand that, but in that case, if you were looking at thinly-traded companies or non-public ones, then a banker at Goldman Sachs would have no informational edge from an ER perspective than someone from a middle-market bank simply because there's not much research out there to begin with. If that's the case, then probably the best thing to do is to look at industry reports for the larger companies in the industry or some adjacent industry to understand the macro trends -- that's probably the most useful way to glean interesting tidbits from research reports.

Now, it's a whole other issue if the original poster just doesn't have access to good research, in which case I'd personally probably try to petition a limited-access subscription to TheMarkets or Thomson. As a banker I would feel pretty hindered putting together books or memos if I didn't have access to decent research.