Morgan Keegan’s Focus List Performance Ranks First

The Focus List of Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc., had the highest returns among the recommended stock lists of 13 leading national and regional brokerage firms with a 28.5% return for the five years ended December 31, 2009, according to Zacks Investment Research, Inc. This is the third consecutive time that Morgan Keegan’s Focus List has ranked #1 for the five-year period.

In an article published January 30, 2010, in Barron's titled "How the Brokers Stack Up,” Zacks reported the 28.5% return posted by Morgan Keegan's Focus List substantially outperformed the recommended lists of Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Edward Jones, Raymond James and Wells Fargo, as well as the Standard & Poor's 500 Composite, for the five-year period.

In addition, Morgan Keegan’s Focus List performance ranked sixth with a gain of 24.2% for the second half of 2009, third among this group with a 45.2% gain in the one-year category and seventh with a 10.6% loss in the three-year category. According to Zacks Investment Research, Morgan Keegan’s Focus List posted a 64.2% return since Zacks began tracking Morgan Keegan’s Focus List performance at the beginning of 2004.

"At Morgan Keegan, we have always looked after the long-term investment success of our clients and that emphasis is applied to the decision-making process of our Focus List,” said Elkan Scheidt, chairman of Morgan Keegan’s Focus Group and director of the firm’s equity research department. "Our solid performance in the five-year category was helped by an overweighting in tech and industrial stocks last year and by the strong returns of economically sensitive sectors during the latter part of the 2003-2007 bull period. Our equity analysts have done a superior job of identifying those stocks that have the greatest potential for long-term production for the benefit of our clients.”

In 1988, Morgan Keegan created the Focus Group to make the firm's equity research more accessible for the individual investor through the firm’s Focus List of recommended stocks. The Focus Group includes representatives from the firm’s equity research department, equity strategy group, equity institutional sales department and private client group. To create the Focus List, the Group selects stocks that they believe have the best potential from the firm's coverage universe.

Zacks Investment Research, Inc., an independent research source for Barron's, tracks the stock recommendations of 13 major brokerage firms. The Zacks survey is intended to give investors an indication of how their portfolio would perform if investment professionals selected their stocks. Calculations for the survey take into account gains or losses, dividends and theoretical commissions of 1% on each trade. If a Barron’s survey participant informs Zacks of a change to the focus list before 12:00 noon CT, the change is effective on the same day, otherwise it is accounted for on the next day. The prices used are the official exchange closing prices. Monthly returns are then linked geometrically to produce quarterly and annual total return performance figures. Zacks calculates the time-weighted monthly performance of focus lists on an equal-weighted basis.

About Morgan Keegan & Company Inc.

Morgan Keegan & Company Inc., one of the nation’s largest regional full-service brokerage and investment banking firms, is the securities brokerage arm of Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE: RF). Headquartered in Memphis, Tenn., Morgan Keegan serves individual and institutional investors in over 300 offices in 19 states. Additional information about Morgan Keegan and Regions – a member of the S&P 100 Index– can be found at www.morgankeegan.com and www.regions.com.