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Bruce Hamilton & team
Morgan Stanley
"Harm's overviews of the European real estate sector continue to be a value add."
Reclaiming the top spot after a year in second place is Bruce Hamilton's team at Morgan Stanley. The London-based trio follows 15 stocks, one more than last year, and provides "strong global thematic coverage of the asset management space," according to one London-based hedge fund manager. In January 2012 the analysts dubbed Aberdeen Asset Management a top pick and urged clients to overweight the stock, on the belief that investors were underestimating the potential for "positive earnings revisions from strong equity inflows driving positive topline margins and growth in profits," explains Hamilton, 39. Shares of the Scotland-based firm surged 79.8 percent last year, trumping the sector by 67.3 percentage points, and Aberdeen remains among the team's top picks going forward. — Leslie Kramer