Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), a concept that has been around for well over 50 years, has become prominent again recently. It is noticed that an increasing number of transnational corporations (TNCs) and large domestic companies, supported by business and industry associations, are adopting a variety of so-called voluntary CSR initiatives that incorporate, for example, ‘codes of conduct; measures to improve environmental management systems and occupational health and safety; company ‘triple bottom line’ reporting on financial, social, and environmental aspects; participation in certification and labeling schemes; dialogue with stakeholders and partnerships with NGOs and UN agencies; and increased support for community development projects and programmers’. The revival of CSR is reflected also in its recent prominence in public debate. CSR has also generated a very extensive literature in recent times. For example, a search on Google Scholar for the phrase ‘corporate social responsibility’ produced 12,500 citations. We explore the impact of corporate social responsibility ratings on sell-side analysts’ assessments of firms’ future financial performance. We suggest that when analysts perceive CSR as an agency cost, due to the prevalence of an agency logic, they produce pessimistic recommendations for firms with high CSR ratings.