Reuters – Stock tracker Majestic Research doesn’t talk to company executives or visit malls to get a handle on retail trends. Nor does it make stock recommendations.

But the New York-based research firm is winning converts among hedge funds who say its brand of Web-based quantitative analysis can be more accurate than traditional Wall Street research forecasts.

With e-commerce now comprising a larger share of consumer spending than ever before, Web-based data mining has become a rich source to track products sales and generate sales leads.

But instead of sales leads, Majestic uses Web data to track sales and forecast financial results for target companies – ahead of quarterly earnings releases.

“It’s really been an invaluable service,” said Isabelle Fymat, partner in the $1.2 billion hedge fund Crosslink Capital, referring to Majestic. Fymat, who tracks e-commerce stocks like Yahoo (YHOO.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and Amazon.com (AMZN.O: Quote, Profile, Research), said Majestic supplies “a lot more reliable information on what is driving or hurting revenue.”

Majestic, which was founded in 2002, uses “quantitative” analysis that it claims can do the job better than traditional stock research methods, at least for consumer-sensitive companies that utilize the Internet in some way.

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