Robin Bienenstock & team
Sanford C. Bernstein
After a year atop the roster, the Sanford C. Bernstein trio that Robin Bienenstock steers slips back to second place. “They are the standout team for me in terms of differentiated published research,” says one money manager in London. The analysts downgraded U.K.-based Vodafone Group from outperform to market perform in September, at 179.51p, making the case that the market was underestimating macroeconomic headwinds and earnings momentum would stall. The stock had slid 14 percent, to 154.45p, by the end of the year. During the same period the sector lost 8.4 percent. “We think the sector has probably bottomed this year, but we don’t expect real recovery of valuations until very late in 2013 or in 2014,” Bienenstock says. However, “2013 could be a great year for some of the more distressed names in our sector, such as [the Netherlands’] Royal KPN and Telecom Italia, if they can fix their balance sheets.” . — Pam Baker