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Toshihiko Okino
UBS
"He's particularly good at identifying the catalysts of earnings growth."
Celebrating his tenth straight year on top — and earning entry into the inaugural All-Japan Research Team Hall of Fame — is Toshihiko Okino of UBS. "He has good relationships with the managers of companies, so his investment judgment is appropriate," declares one ally. Another notes that Okino "always responds quickly to requests for information." In August the analyst, who also captures a runner-up position in Construction, highlighted his buy rating on Tokyo-based developer Mitsubishi Estate Co., at ¥1,411, on the belief that the office-vacancy rate in that city had peaked. He was right: The rate dropped from 10.3 percent in last year's fiscal first quarter, which ended in June, to 9.3 percent in the second quarter and to 8.8 percent in the third — the first such reversals in more than two decades — according to CBRE Group, a commercial real estate services provider headquartered in the U.S. By mid-March the stock had catapulted 98.2 percent, to ¥2,796, and trumped the sector by a staggering 78.1 percentage points. Okino, who tracks 30 companies, remains bullish and also recommends Sumitomo Realty & Development Co. He upgraded the Tokyo-based homebuilder's shares from neutral to buy in February 2012, at ¥1,833, largely on its strong balance sheet. By mid-March 2013 the stock price had more than doubled, to ¥3,700. — Ben Mattlin