Patrick Hummel, Jean-François Meymandi & team
UBS
The UBS team has lost one member over the past year and drops one level on the roster, to third place. Frankfurt-based Patrick Hummel and Jean-François Meymandi, who works out of Zurich, co-captain the crew of three; the analysts follow nine renewables along with companies in chemicals and other utilities. “They’ve kept us out of trouble,” explains one grateful portfolio manager in London, who singles out February 2012’s simultaneous downgrades from neutral to sell on two solar-power providers: Switzerland’s Meyer Burger Technology, at Sf17.35, and Germany’s Centrotherm Photovoltaics, at €14.56, both on declining sales. By late December the shares had plunged 61 percent, to Sf6.76, and a jaw-dropping 94.1 percent, to €0.86, respectively. During the same period the broad market climbed 4.5 percent. The stocks remain on the team’s sell list, as solar electricity prices remain at or below costs.
— Ben Mattlin