Arndt Ellinghorst & team
Credit Suisse
Arndt Ellinghorst and his Credit Suisse quartet take second place for a third year running. With 14 stocks under coverage (unchanged from a year ago), the London-based analysts “keep a finger on the pulse of the industry,” as one buy-side backer puts it. Currently recommending companies that are well positioned to benefit from expanding demand in Asia and North America, they single out Germany’s Continental, a parts supplier, and autos giant Volkswagen. The former was upgraded from neutral to outperform way back in January 2010, at €41.39, after a successful debt refinancing; the latter was relaunched at outperform in November 2011, at €112.02, on its growing market share and cash flows. By year-end 2012, Continental’s shares had more than doubled, to €87.59 — advancing 84.8 percent and trumping the sector by 48.2 percentage points in the preceding 12 months alone. VW’s had shot up to €162.75, for a life-of-call gain of 45.3 percent that bested the sector by 15.7 percentage points. In November, Ellinghorst was tapped to co-direct European equity research; Erich Hauser has succeeded him as team leader. — Ben Mattlin