Jorge Kuri
& team
Morgan Stanley
First-place appearances: 1

Total appearances: 14

Team debut: 1994

After a year’s absence, Morgan Stanley returns to the ranking in third place. Led by New York–based Jorge Kuri, who also guides the No. 2 team in Financials/Banks, the analysts are bullish on Cielo, a Brazil-based provider of credit card services. “We expect pricing to prove resilient, driving solid earnings-per-share growth,” Kuri explains. “The stock is pricing in an overly negative regulatory and competitive scenario, and valuation and dividend yield are attractive.” Also recommended: Brasil Insurance Participações e Administração. The stock outperformed the sector by 20.1 percentage points year-to-date through mid-July, and “we expect the same strong trends to continue,” he adds. Kuri “has been consistently right about his calls,” proclaims one buy-side backer. “He turned negative on the Brazilian financials early, and he maintained his negative call during a long period of underperformance for the sector.” — Leslie Kramer