Toronto-based Blackmont Capital has been named second best North American brokerage firm for 2007 by First Coverage Inc., a company that ranks institutional salespeople and sell-side firms.

Blackmont was nosed out by a Birmingham, Ala.-based brokerage house, Sterne Agee, for top spot in the rankings. RBC ranked fourth, and Cormark Securities took seventh place.

First Coverage said its rankings were derived from the more than 25,000 different actionable trade ideas communicated by nearly 1,000 salespeople at more than 250 firms via First Coverage in 2007.

“Based solely on the performance of ideas submitted to their buy-side clients, our annual ‘Top Performer’ Awards are the only truly objective rankings of the value being generated by sell-side institutions available in the market today,” says Randy Cass, CEO of First Coverage. “The mix of winners this year from both large and small shops, from well-known and niche firms clearly shows that valuable information today could be coming from anyone, anywhere and buy-side firms with tools allowing them to aggregate and organize that information are at a clear advantage. We’re extremely excited for our winners and congratulate them all.”

Individual salespeople that were recognized include: Tim Sorensen from Macquarie Capital Markets Canada, ranked third overall; CIBC’s Emily Won in fourth place; Mike McGuin from Blackmont ranked ninth; and Christine Wong at RBC ranked 10th.