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Saul Martinez
& team
J.P. Morgan
First-place appearances: 2

Total appearances: 22

Team debut: 1993

J.P. Morgan jumps from third place to land in the winner’s circle for the first time since 2003. Back then the sector was called Financial Institutions; it was expanded to Banking & Financial Services in 2010, then divided into Financials/Banks and Financials/Nonbanks last year. New York–based Saul Martinez, 39, has captained the team since 2009. “He has had excellent calls, produces excellent research and is always available for clients,” cheers one buy-side advocate. The three-member crew is generally cautious on the sector but upbeat on the prospects for two Brazil-based institutions, Banco Bradesco and Itaú Unibanco Holding, both of which are rated overweight. “They are unique among large-cap Latin American banks, owing to leading franchises and healthy profitability, and they trade at attractive valuations,” says Martinez, who first joined the firm in 1998 after earning a master’s degree at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in New Jersey. Two years later he moved to Bear, Stearns & Co., which JPMorgan Chase & Co. acquired in 2008. “As someone who has invested in LatAm financials for well over a decade, I value Saul’s thorough analysis, objectivity, eye for detail, breath of coverage and expertise in various subsectors of financial services,” says one. “He sets the benchmark for quality sell-side research.” — Leslie Kramer