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Kevin Chang
& team
Citi
"He knows this investment space the best."
The ten-member Citi squad led by Kevin Chang rockets from runner-up to the top spot. Sales of tablets and smartphones are likely to increase 50 percent year-over-year in 2013, the Taipei-based team leader says, while personal computer sales are expected to decline. The question is, “How will the pie be split?” he asks. “Do we go back to the pre-Apple era, with multiple players having their fair share of the pie, or a duopoly between Apple and Samsung [Electronics Co.] — or even a Samsung monopoly?” The team, which covers 51 companies, favors the latter entity and has named the South Korea–based device manufacturer a top pick for the year, with a target price of 1.97 million won. (The shares were trading at 1.52 million won in late April.) Other preferred stocks include chipmakers SK Hynix of South Korea (29,900 won in late April; target price of 39,000 won) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (109.50 Taiwan dollars in late April; target of NT$117). Chang, 38, covered the sector for J.P. Morgan before joining Citi in 2008; he earned an MBA at the University of California, Los Angeles, Anderson School of Management. “I appreciate the originality of his research and the independence of his thinking,” one supporter notes. — Carolyn Koo