Domingos Falavina & team J.P. Morgan First-place appearances: 2

Total appearances: 19

Team debut: 1993 Rising from runner-up to recapture the No. 3 position it most recently held in 2011 is J.P. Morgan, whose four-strong team in São Paulo has been captained by Domingos Falavina since last year. The researchers monitor seven stocks in the sector, which outperformed the broad Latin American market by 17.3 percentage points year to date through late July, leaping 24.7 percent. Three Brazilian names have been especially strong performers, the analysts note: BB Seguridade Participações, the insurance arm of Banco do Brasil; the region’s dominant central depository for over-the-counter markets, Cetip; and Cielo, the country’s largest payment systems operator. Going forward, they favor Cetip over Cielo, given its still-discounted valuation of 14 to 15 times 2015 earnings, compared with Cielo’s 20 times. They also maintain a positive outlook on BB Seguridade, thanks in part to its expsure to rising domestic interest rates. In addition, “BB Seguridade should benefit from a very high return on earnings of 40 to 45 percent over the next couple years and very high dividend payout ratios of 75 to 80 percent,” says Falavina. “This, coupled with Brazil’s still underpenetrated insurance market and Banco do Brasil’s focus on insurance products, has been fueling the shares’ solid performance.” BB Seguridade’s stock soared 43.1 percent, to 35.06 reais, year to date through late July.