Why Digital Ally Is Unlikely To Earn Wall Street's Affection

Digital Ally, Inc. (NASDAQ: DGLY) received its first analyst coverage today when Roth Capital Partners announced that it had initiated a Buy rating and a $20, 12-month Price Target.The news seems to have had a positive impact on the stock, which closed Wednesday at $14.59. Digital Ally is up more than 3% Thursday and now trades above $15.This is not the first time the company has received a notable bump. The company closed up 12.64% on Thursday, April 9 after investors piled into the stock. They were intrigued by North Charleston mayor Keith Summey, who announced that the city will supply more body cameras for its officers.One expert dismissed the news and told Benzinga that investors were buying a lottery ticket. Now that one Wall Street analyst is covering Digital Ally, investors might expect others to follow -- but will they?"Research coverage is good and all research providers have their own value-added niches," Tigress Financial Partners analyst Ivan Feinseth told Benzinga. "But the fact that Roth has picked up coverage doesn't mean that other firms [will do the same]. Especially the larger firms, [which] cannot devote the resources because there's not an opportunity in the trading volume or the ownership -- it's so small."Feinseth said he likes Roth and that its researchers "do good work" in the microcap space."However, I don't think other firms are gonna follow because, again, of the resources and the focus," he said. "Roth has a small-cap focus."

Execution Comes First

Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry was not impressed by the news that Digital Ally had finally received some Wall Street coverage."I don't think that means anything," Chowdhry told Benzinga. "Ultimately it depends on how well the company can execute. Having certain analysts cover a company means nothing. What only matters is how laser-focused is the company on executing its business plan and getting new business. Analyst coverage means nothing for the company."Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report.