Bobby Chada, Emmanuel Turpin & team
Morgan Stanley
Repeating in third place is the seven-member Morgan Stanley squad co-led by Bobby Chada, who works out of London, and Paris-based Emmanuel Turpin. Monitoring 30 stocks — a number that hasn’t changed and isn’t expected to — the analysts win points for a number of cautious views. For example, in September they relaunched coverage on France’s GDF Suez with an underweight rating, at €18.63, on valuation as well as potential challenges to earnings momentum. In December management issued a profit warning, and shares of the electricity supplier tumbled, dropping 16.4 percent, to €15.57, by the end of that month. During the same period the sector slipped 1.4 percent. The researchers remain bearish, citing near-term uncertainty. “They’re honest and methodical, and they’ve saved us a lot of money,” attests one fund manager in London.
— Ben Mattlin