Nur Cristiani
& team
J.P. Morgan
First-place appearances: 1

Total appearances: 14

Team debut: 1993

Nur Cristiani’s J.P. Morgan trio repeats in third place. The Mexico City–based analysts provide “terrific coverage of the cascade of structural reforms occurring all over the place in Mexico — in labor markets, on tax policies and in the energy sector,” proclaims one investor. “Mexico is catching up with the rest of Latin America, and Nur and her team have had the best handle on that.” The crew’s top picks include Monterrey–based conglomerate Alfa, which has subsidiaries in energy, food processing and petrochemicals, among other industries. Alfa’s ventures in hydrocarbon development, including natural-gas production at its Newpek division, as well as growth in its auto-components manufacturing segment will prove successful, the researchers believe. They have a target price of 34 pesos; the stock was trading at 31.47 pesos in mid-July. The team also likes Promotora y Operadora de Infraestructura, commonly referred to as Pinfra, a construction and engineering company headquartered in Mexico City, because of its high cash-flow yield and exposure to the country’s infrastructure boom — “without its peers’ high leverage,” Cristiani notes. — Paul Sweeney