Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. has expanded its U.S. equity research sector coverage by hiring a dedicated REITs research team.
The firm hired managing directors David Toti and Sri Nagarajan and vice presidents Evan Smith and Gaurav Mehta, all formerly with FBR Capital Markets & Co. Its U.S. equity research group is headed by Senior Managing Director Natasha Boyden, recently promoted to head of U.S. Equity research.
Toti, who joins Cantor Fitzgerald as a managing director, held the same position at FBR and was also group head of real estate research at the company. Earlier, as a senior REIT research analyst at Citi and Lehman Brothers, he covered various real estate sectors.
Nagarajan has joined Cantor as a senior research analyst and managing director. He was most recently senior analyst at FBR, where he covered office, industrial and shopping center REITs. Before FBR, Nagarajan worked as a senior investment analyst at Cohen & Steers Capital Management and as a senior manager at Sabre, managing a team researching efficient scheduling optimization algorithms and macroeconomic forecasting models for the transportation industry.
The new REITs sector coverage broadens the scope of the firm's growing equity research platform, reinforcing the firm's commitment to offer institutional clients with research on small and mid-cap companies.
"Cantor Fitzgerald continues to attract extraordinary talent to our U.S. equity research platform. These new hires enable us to further strengthen our institutional equities capabilities and enhance our firm's ability to deliver information and insight that add value to our clients around the world," said Shawn Matthews, chief executive officer of Cantor. "With the addition of REITs coverage, Cantor can provide its institutional clients with proprietary investment themes about an important sector that is of central importance to the U.S. economy."
"Real estate is a core focus for Cantor, and the collective experience that David, Sri, Evan and Gaurav bring covering the spectrum of REIT stocks will significantly deepen the firm's existing coverage of this key industry," Boyden said. "As we continue to hire highly qualified research analysts, we remain committed to provide best-in-class research and ideas to our institutional client base."
