Mr. Wells was perhaps the only brokerage analyst down on the stock.

The brokerage analysts predicted that the average growth stock would rise more than 20 percentage points a year faster than would the average value stock.

The professors say the prospect of investment banking business may have led the brokerage analysts to overestimate growth stocks' returns consistently.

'An Anachronism' Despite the difficulties they face, some brokerage analysts responded enthusiastically to the idea of merging the companies.

When the "wire house" brokerage analysts start writing research reports on a stock, he emphasizes, it is too late to get in.

In rough terms, about three-quarters of Hambrecht's business is in health care, high-technology and related service industries, according to brokerage analysts who follow investment banking companies.

"His ideas haven't been chewed over by every brokerage analyst on the Street."

A NEW study of brokerage analysts' ratings offers more ammunition for Wall Street's critics.

"It's all going to be fine lines everywhere," said Steve Galbraith, a senior brokerage analyst at Sanford Bernstein & Company.

"Both numbers were a bit better than expected," Alison A. Deans, a brokerage analyst at Smith Barney, said.