Colin McGranahan
Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.
First-place appearances: 6

Total appearances: 10

Team debut: 2004

Colin McGranahan reprises last year’s second-place finish and earns his tenth straight appearance in the lineup. The Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst is “knowledgeable” and a “long-term thinker” on his universe, cheers one supporter. He’s still pounding the table on Union, New Jersey–based Bed Bath & Beyond, which he has favored since launching coverage in January 2008. Although the shares took a tumble in late 2012, trading down to a 52-week low of $54.91 in December, McGranahan urged customers to buy them in January, at $55.80. “The stock got very cheap because people thought they were losing share to Amazon.com,” he explains, “when in reality they were impacted by higher couponing. We thought those issues would get less severe.” It seems he was correct. The stock has since bolted 32.2 percent, to $73.74, through August, and led the sector by 10 percentage points. — Katie Gilbert