Luis Prieto & team
Deutsche Bank
Down one notch to second place are Luis Prieto and his London-based trio at Deutsche Bank. The researchers, who follow 30 stocks, win praise for their May 2012 upgrade from hold to buy on the U.K.’s Berkeley Group Holdings, at 1,202.12p, on its strategic land acquisitions — especially its residential developments in London. By the end of the year, the stock had jumped 45 percent, to 1,742.68p. One pension fund manager in London describes the call as a “well-timed, moneymaking idea.” However, the team’s upgrade on France’s Lafarge, on the belief that the builder was well positioned to benefit from a broad-based recovery this year, came much too late, critics charge. The analysts raised the stock from hold to buy in mid-December, at €46.26, after the stock had already logged a year-to-date gain of nearly 73 percent. By the end of that month, the shares had inched up to €48.23. — Ben Mattlin