David Driscoll
Citi
First-place appearances: 0

Total appearances: 7

Team debut: 2007

Citi analyst David Driscoll catapults from runner-up to second place. He favors Hershey Co., a chocolate manufacturer that he says is uniquely well positioned to profit from new tailwinds. Among these are agricultural deflation, which will be a major boon since Hershey is a significant purchaser of cocoa, and strengthening consumer spending in the U.S. and abroad. “The benefit of the improved consumer is showing up faster at Hershey because the company has executed well on a new consumer strategy that encourages consumers to buy,” Driscoll says. “Loosening up purse strings doesn’t benefit all companies at once. As you loosen, you’re going to do it in particular places.” As an example of this strategy, Driscoll points to the Hershey, Pennsylvania–based company’s launch of Brookside Foods’ dark-chocolate-covered fruits earlier this year. “It’s a fundamentally different product that has not existed in the mass market,” he contends. (Hershey acquired the Canadian confectioner in 2012.) Driscoll recommended Hershey back in January 2009, at $29.91, and most recently reiterated the buy call late this August, with the stock already up 137.3 percent, to $91.08. It had gained 28.3 percent in the trailing 12 months. “He does a great job of giving clients a sense of what’s happening upstream and downstream,” says one pleased investor, “everything from growing the food to running the supermarkets.” — Katie Gilbert